The Recent Changes To The Nigerian Tax Code

In a recent landmark decision , the Tax Appeal Tribunal (TAT or the Tribunal) held that INT Towers Limited (INT) is not liable to pay the levy imposed on GSM service providers and telecommunications companies pursuant to the provisions of the National Information Technology Development Agency Act (NITDA).

This decision was predicated on TAT's finding that INT is a network facilities provider and not a GSM service provider or telecommunications company to which the NITDA applies.

Pursuant to the provisions of section 12(2)(a) and the Third Schedule of the NITDA Act, 2007, GSM Service Providers and telecommunications companies amongst others are required to pay 1% profit before tax (PBT) levy into the NITDA Fund created for that purpose. On the basis of these provisions, FIRS through its TaxPro-Max Platform came up with an assessment that imposed a tax obligation of N488,103,920.09 on INT.