FIRS plans to charge N50 stamp duty on electronic receipts, NIPOST reacts

The Federal Inland Revenue Service will henceforth charge Nigerians N50 stamp duties on all forms of electronic notifications. These include SMS and messages on any electronic platform such as emails and WhatsApp messages.
This was contained in a circular, signed by FIRS’ Chairman, Muhammad Nami, published on the Service’s website. The circular went further to state that all receipts, either printed or electronically generated, or any form of electronic acknowledgement of money transactions, will attract the stamp duty of N50.

The Service stressed that it is the only body authorised to collect stamp duties adding that the instruments subject to charge, as listed in the circular, include; fixed duty instruments such as Power of Attorney, Certificate of Attorney, Proxy forms, Appointment of receivers, Memorandum of Understanding, Joint Venture Agreements, Guarantors form, Ordinary agreements and Receipts. He added that Ad-valorem instruments such as Tenancy or lease agreements, legal mortgage or debentures, Sales agreements and Deed of assignments are also included.

The circular noted that “any electronic receipt for, or electronic transfer of, money deposited with any bank or with any banker in any type of account of an amount from N10,000 upwards shall attract a singular or one-off duty of the sum of N50. “Stamp duty upon receipt (written, printed or in electronic form) for transactions between corporate bodies or between a corporate body and an individual, group or body of individuals, which amounts to N10,000 and above, shall be denoted by payment of N50 per receipt to the service.”

In a swift reaction, NIPOST in a statement on Sunday insisted that its statutory powers confer on it the right to print, mint, produce, retail, and provide adhesive postage stamp for the use of Nigerians.

Both agencies have been laying claims to Stamp Duty collection since 2019. FIRS gets nod to collect stamp duty Nigeria loses N2tr annually to non-remittance of N50 stamp duty.

The FIRS had said the Finance Act 2019 conferred on it the exclusive right to collect stamp duty on behalf of the Federal Government.

But NIPOST countered this by saying the Act contains some “contradictions”, which should be addressed by appropriate authorities.

The postal agency said the Office of the Accountant-General had also issued a circular to NIPOST on the collection of both physical and electronic stamp duty of N50, maintaining that there is no conflict between NIPOST and FIRS in the collection of stamp duty.

The postal agency said it is statutorily empowered to collect stamp duty and it would not give up its right on it.

It would be recalled that the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Hajiya Zaynab Ahmed announced in December that FIRS will automatically become an agency to collect the Stamp Duty following the passage of the 2019 Finance Bill by the National Assembly which contains an amendment to Stamp Duty Act.