Bank self-certification form not for everyone - FG clarifies, apologizes

The federal government has tendered an apology and deleted a series of tweets that sent Nigeria's social media space into a meltdown on Thursday, September 17, 2020.

“We apologize for the misleading tweets (now deleted) that went up yesterday, regarding the completion of self-certification forms by Reportable Persons. The message contained in the @firsNigeria notice does not apply to everybody. FIRS will issue appropriate clarification shortly,” the federal government shared.

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has also added that an earlier statement from the federal government requesting all bank and insurance account holders to obtain self-certification forms from their financial institutions, has been misunderstood.

On Thursday, the federal government issued a statement to say “all account holders in financial institutions (Banks, Insurance Companies, etc) are required to obtain, complete and submit self-certification forms to their respective financial institutions.

“Failure to comply with the requirement to administer or execute this form attracts sanctions which may include monetary penalty or inability to operate the account.”

Nigerians have been railing against the move, wondering why a previous Bank Verification Number (BVN) exercise touted as a solution to all biometric data harmonization in the country, can’t deal with the problem.

The FIRS has now come out to say the policy only affects non-residents and citizens with tax residence in more than one country.

“This is to clarify the publication for financial institutions account holders in Nigeria to complete the self certification form, pursuant to the Income Tax (Common Reporting Standard) Regulations 2019 which is for the fulfillment of Automatic Exchange of Information Requirements,” the FIRS shared in a tweet.

“The self certification form is basically to be administered on Reportable persons holding accounts in Financial institutions that are regarded as "Reportable Financial Institutions” under the CRS. Reportable persons are often non-residents and other persons who have residence for tax purposes in more than one jurisdiction or country.

We apologize for the misleading tweets (now deleted) that went up yesterday, regarding the completion of self-certification forms by Reportable Persons. The message contained in the @firsNigeria Notice does not apply to everybody. FIRS will issue appropriate clarification shortly pic.twitter.com/KBiPh0lCwJ

— Government of Nigeria (@NigeriaGov) September 18, 2020

“Financial institutions are expected to administer the self certification form on such account holders when information at its disposal indicates that the account holder is a person resident for tax purpose in more than one jurisdiction.

“The information that indicates an account holder is a resident for tax purposes in more than one jurisdiction, is expected to be available to financial institutions during account opening processes for the KYC and AML purpose,” the FIRS added.

Tax analyst Taiwo Oyedele says the federal government is embarking on this project in order to exchange taxpayers’ information with other countries. “In case you’re wondering what the federal government is saying, this is in connection with the commencement of automatic exchange of taxpayers information between Nigeria and other countries,” says Oyedele.

“The information required is to enable reporting financial institutions to determine the tax residency of their customers to know which countries to share your information with,” adds Oyedele.

Some analysts have blamed poor communication from the government for the latest controversy.

Former Director General of the Bureau for Public Sector Reform, Joe Abah, says this is yet another example of poor communication from the government.

“So, in essence, your press statement, relayed by @NigeriaGov only concerns non-residents and those with tax residence in more than one country. It doesn’t concern the majority of citizens. If so, both your press statement and the tweet by @NigeriaGov were misleading and unnecessary.

“I reiterate, once again, my call for a policy unit within the State House (not just within the presidency) that will curate all policies and announcements. Individual agencies should not be able to just wake up and announce far-reaching policies and then have to retract. O wrong nau!”, Abah wrote on Twitter.

Public affairs analyst, Ayobami Oyalowo says “poor communication is the bane of all good intentions.”