MultiChoice denies accusation of tax evasion by FIRS

MultiChoice, which includes MultiChoice Nigeria and MultiChoice Africa, has denied the accusation by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) that it is into the practice of tax evasion.

In a statement on Thursday, the company denied that is has an outstanding of N1.8 trillion in tax and averred that it has complied with the country’s tax laws, a position it is ready to prove to the FIRS.

RovingNaija reported on Thursday that the FIRS announced it has engaged commercial banks to freeze and recover the sum of N1.8 trillion from the bank accounts of MultiChoice Nigeria Limited and MultiChoice Africa.

The Executive Chairman of FIRS, Muhammad Nami, accused MultiChoice of consistently failing to promptly respond to correspondences, lack data integrity and continually denies FIRS access to their records.

“Particularly, MultiChoice has avoided giving the FIRS accurate information on the number of its subscribers and income,” he said.

“The companies are involved in the under-remittance of taxes which necessitated a critical review of the tax-compliance level of the company.

“It is important that Nigeria puts a stop to all tax frauds that had been going on for too long and all companies must be held accountable and made to pay their fair share of relevant taxes including back duty taxes owed especially VAT,” he said.

However, in a short statement on Thursday, a company representative said Multichoice had complied with the tax laws of Nigeria, and that it had not received any notification from the tax body.

MultiChoice, owners of the DStv and GOtv brands is the leading pay entertainment/subscription management company on the African continent. MultiChoice operates alongside its subsidiaries such as SuperSport, M-Net and AfricaMagic.