The Federal Inland Revenue Service has warned taxpayers against falling for the temptation to hide transactions with the going live of the new National E-Invoicing Solution (Merchant-Buyer Model), as transaction monitoring has become easier.

This piece of advice was given to a gathering of large taxpayers in Lagos during the just-concluded two-day post-launch workshop.

The National E-Invoicing Solution (Merchant-Buyer Model) is a digital representation of transactions between suppliers and buyers, effectively replacing traditional paper or electronic documents such as invoices, credit notes and debit notes. This eInvoice includes all essential transaction details like supplier and buyer information, item descriptions, quantities, prices, tax, and total amounts. Designed to facilitate real-time or near-real-time validation and storage of transactions.

Speaking at the workshop, the Acting Director of Tax Automation at FIRS, Mike Adoga, said, “FIRS is in the middle of providing, you know, governance and ensuring that every invoice gets a reference number, which is also part of this initiative, because what we do at the Tax Automation department of FIRS is we provide all the digital tools that would make the process of tax administration seamless.

“One of the other things with the initiatives we have is transaction monitoring. Now, if you’re tempted as a taxpayer not to declare all your invoices on the invoicing platform, that won’t be a very good idea, because we have also given all the payment gateways the responsibility of reporting every payment that passes through them to us. That’s an incentive to use the invoicing system fully.”

Mr Emmanuel Eze, who represented the Chief of Staff to the FIRS Executive Chairman, Tayo Koleosho, said the workshop was designed to provide practical guidance on taxpayer enablement, integration processes and return invoice transmission.

Speaking on the extension of the onboarding to November 1, Eze, who is the Director of Change Management at FIRS, said, “We recognise the onboarding journey is still ongoing. That is why the FIRS, in the spirit of encouraging voluntary compliance, has approved a three-month extension to the onboarding and transmission deadline, now set for November 1, 2025. This extension is not an opportunity to delay; rather, it is a chance for all stakeholders to complete integration test transmissions and resolve system readiness issues well ahead of enforcement.

“So, the service is committed to supporting you through technical services, sector-specific engagement sessions, and collaboration with designated service providers to speed up integration timelines. Our successes depend on the mutual trust and cooperation between the FIRS, taxpayers, consultants and technology partners.”

The Project Manager, e-invoicing, Mr Mohammed Bawa, in his comments, said that the service was working to decentralise its customer support centre to enhance the experience.

“Internally, we are working to also decentralise our support channels. We don’t want a situation where you have to always call me. We will take deliberate steps to expand the team, decentralise it, and make sure that within the tax offices, and every office, it’s equipped with the relevant knowledge, because that is most important: the knowledge and information that you require, mostly at this stage.”

FIRS had earlier 16 tech companies as service providers to support taxpayers in onboarding its e-invoicing platform. The service providers include Pasca Technology Limited, Hoptool Technology Limited, Etranzact International Plc, Telepac Africa Nigeria Limited, Cryptware System Limited, Namiri Technology Nigeria Limited, Ace of Spades Consult Nigeria Limited, Jureb Business Solutions Limited, Qucoon Limited, Courteville Business Solutions, and Softrust Technologies Limited.

Others are Westmetro Limited, Arca Payments Company Limited, Elara Technical Services Ltd, Interswitch Limited, and Remita Payment Limited.