No deadline extension for tax return filing, LIRS warns

The Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) has warned that there is no plan to extend the deadline for filing individual yearly tax returns beyond the statutory March 31 deadline.

The Executive Chairman, Ayodele Subair, disclosed this at the LIRS headquarters, Ikeja. He advised all individual taxpayers, including self-employed persons and employees under the pay PAYE Scheme to take advantage of the remaining days in March to file their yearly tax returns or pay penalties and face other sanctions, which may include prosecution.

According to him, the obligation to file yearly tax returns is stipulated in Section 41 of the Personal Income Tax Act (PITA).

He said the provision makes it mandatory for all taxable persons to file a return of aggregate income from all sources for the preceding year with the state tax authority where they reside within 90 days from the commencement of every year.

He said LIRS has, in the last three months, engaged taxpayers using various media to remind them of their statutory obligations as provided in PITA Cap P8 2011 (as amended).

Subair warned that the agency would use the full weight of the law in ensuring taxpayers who fail to meet the deadline are brought to book.

He stressed that the filing of tax returns in the state could only be done via the LIRS eTax portal – https://etax.lirs.net.

The LIRS boss noted that it is therefore mandatory for all taxable persons in the state to register on the eTax portal, which is built purposely for the convenience of taxpayers.

“As part of the Agency’s quest to ease compliance obligations for taxpayers, tax officers have been designated at various tax stations to assist individuals to carry out online registration and filing of tax returns on the e-Tax portal,” he stated.