Hubwright Tax Academy

Tax Haven: What you should know By Richard Okunola What is Tax Haven? A tax haven is any country or jurisdiction that offers minimal tax liability to foreign individuals and businesses. In most cases, tax havens do not require businesses to operate out of their country or the individuals to reside in their country to receive tax benefits. How do you know a Country is a tax haven? According to a report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), some of the most common criteria are: a. Nil or nominal tax on relevant income b. Lack of effective exchange information c. Lack of transparency What benefit do you stand to gain from tax haven? There is a tax saving benefit which in tax haven countries may range from zero to low single digits compared to high taxes in their country of citizenship or domicile. E.g, if you are paying 30 Income tax in Nigeria, you may be paying nil or 2% in a tax haven country if you have a company there. How do these c

Congratulations to the new Chairman of Ogun State Internal Revenue Service - Olugbenga Anthony Olaleye. - By Richard Okunola A brief about his career Mr. Olaleye's qualifications are quite interesting amongst which include UNICAL (B.Sc) 1984, ICAN (FCA) 1997, CITN (ACTI), Mini MBA (USA), Alumni (LBS), John Maxwell Team (Certificate Coach) and so on.... He is an alumnus of 3 of the Big 4 International firms - #Deloitte, #PwC and Arthur Andersen (now #KPMG in Nigeria); and also with other reputable organisation like #Guinness. With over 34 years of practice exposure in Accounting, Audit, Tax Practice, Management Consulting, Corporate Finance, Receiverships & Liquidations, Project Evaluation, Risk Management, Internal Audit, Controls & Compliance, Strategic Planning and People Development, he's got an incredible portfolio of experience. Following these lineup of qualifications, plus the recent developments and enabling business environment in Ogun State, I'm convinced

Loss Relief: Simplifying the complexities Written by Richard Okunola Losses arise when a company's aggregate deductions (like expenses) exceeds the total assessable profit or income made. The rules governing loss relief strictly prohibit making a claim for loss when there is actually no loss made.  Categories of loss relief There are three main types of loss relief namely; 1. Current year loss relief:  The current year loss relief is only applicable to individuals and can be relieved against profit from various business activities i.e losses from a particular business can be relieved against profit from other business source. 2. Carry forward losses relief The carry forward losses relief is available to both individual taxpayers and corporate bodies (companies). This relief is granted on preceding year basis i.e. losses from prior year can only be relieved prospectively on profits in the subsequent year(s). 3. Terminal loss relief According to Nigerian tax law there is no provision

Classification of Taxes: Direct vs Indirect Tax Written by Richard Okunola Did you know that practically everyone pays tax? Both the young and old.... Tax remains a major source of income to the government, so tax is imposed on almost all the products that we consume (excluding essential goods - explained in the last paragraph) and services that we render. Therefore, we may not be aware, but we all pay taxes directly or indirectly. Generally, taxes can be classified in various ways, depending on the perspective through which the taxes are being received or paid. However,  let's focus on the perspective of Tax Subject. There are two classes of tax: a. Direct Tax:   This is a tax levied on the income or profits of the person who pays it, rather than on goods or services. This is termed direct tax because the taxpayer suffers the tax alone and may not be able to transfer the tax burden to others.  Example of direct taxes are Personal Income Tax (PIT), Companies Income Tax (CIT), Capit

An introduction into the Nigerian tax administration  By: Richard Okunola The tax administration in Nigeria is categorized under the three tiers of government present in the country i.e. the federal level, the state level and the local government level.  In accordance with the Nigerian constitutional provision, the Federal government through the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) administers all taxes due from corporate bodies, while the FCT-IRS manages taxes of residence of the Federal Capital Territory. Each State government taxes are being administered by the relevant State Board of Internal Revenue (SBIR); while, the Local government taxes are being administered by the Local Government Revenue Committee (LGRC). Taxes administered by the FIRS include: Company income tax (CIT), Withholding tax (WHT) on companies, Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT), Value added tax (VAT), Tertiary education tax (TET), Capital gain tax (CGT) for companies, Stamp duties for companies and other related compan

Small businesses in Nigeria wish to be tax compliant, but only a few of them have an understanding of the tax requirements. Due to their very small nature, they often find it very difficult to employ an accountant. Several others who try to fulfill their civil responsibility, often get caught up by the tax authorities and are sometimes exposed to additional tax liabilities and fines. Hubwright Tax Academy will be here to help you. This platform is designed to provide useful tips and insights that can help small businesses assess themselves and equip them as much as possible with all the tax knowledge they should possess in order to comply with the tax requirements from relevant tax authorities. - Richard Okunola, AAT, ACA