FIRS, MultiChoice Agree To Resolve Tax Disputes

MultiChoice Nigeria and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on Wednesday reached a compromise to settle pending issues on tax outside court.

Part of the agreements reached will see MultiChoice withdraw all pending lawsuits, while FIRS conducts a forensic system of the company’s accounts.

Both parties in a statement jointly signed wrote, “By the broad terms of the agreement, MultiChoice shall withdraw all pending lawsuits towards an amicable resolution of the dispute. Also, as part of the agreement, the FIRS commenced a Forensic Systems Audit of MultiChoice accounts on Tuesday, 8 March 2022 to determine the tax liability of the company.”

FIRS In July 2021 had asked MultiChoice to turn in ₦1.82 trillion as tax bills after appointing some commercial banks as agents to recover the amount.

The Chairman of FIRS, Muhammad Nami noted that the banks were appointed as agents and used to freeze accounts because MultiChoice refused to grant FIRS access to its servers for audit.

MultiChoice, which disputed the assessments, approached the tax appeal tribunal (TAT), which led to a series of cases at both the TAT and the federal high court.

Multichoice in another case filed against FIRS challenged the assessment of FIRS over unpaid value-added tax (VAT) amounting to $342 million.

The resumption of the forensic systems audit will commence soon with the agreement reached between both parties.