Twitter Ban: FG to Tax Twitter, Facebook, and Google in Nigeria

• The Vice President of Nigeria Yemi Osinbajo has announced that the government is set to tax foreign technology and digital firms with a high presence in Nigeria

• According to the VP’s spoke person Laolu Akande, the government will not be increasing task but instead widening the net to tech giants like Google, Twitter, and Facebook

• This act is to ensure that tech companies that make income from the country, remit their fair share of tax

The federal government through Vice President Yemi Osinbajo
has announced plans to tax profits made by foreign tech companies from Nigeria.

The vice-president’s spokesman, Laolu Akande released a statement containing Osinbajo’s interaction with a delegation of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN).

The statement revealed that the government will not be raising tax rates at this time but instead widen its tax net to reach foreign tech firms.

The planned tax policy is likely to affect tech companies lie like Facebook and Google.

The FG believes that despite these companies not being based in Nigeria, they have a significant economic presence in the country.

FG’s taxation plan is in line with section 4 of the finance act 2019

“the Minister (Finance) may by order (of the President) determine what constitutes the significant economic presence of a company other than a Nigerian company”.

While Osinbajo stated that the government has no plans to increase tax rates, he revealed that there have been claims by many that Nigeria’s tax rate is low.

It remains unknown how tech companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Google will react to taxation by the Nigerian government.

FG’s latest decision is coming just a few weeks after a decision to ban the use of Twitter in Nigeria.