The Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) in furtherance to the provisions of the Personal Income Tax Act (PITA), recently issued a public notice on its intention to integrate the Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) of individuals and companies resident in Lagos State; with the Lagos State Government Electronic Banking System (LASG-EBS) also known as Personal Identification Digit (PID) and the Joint Tax Board (JTB) Tax Identification Number (TIN) of taxpayers.

According to the LIRS Public Notice, access to the LIRS electronic platform for all transactions, such as registration and creation of Payer ID for new taxpayers, payment of taxes and validation of taxpayers’ profile will compulsorily require BVN validation.

The Public Notice also requires self-employed individuals to provide their BVN to the LIRS for creation of their unique PID, while corporate organisations are to ensure that their employees provide their BVNs for processing of their Tax Clearance Certificates (TCCs).

Section 47 of the Personal Income Tax Act (PITA) 2011 grants the LIRS the authority to request for any information from any person for the purposes of obtaining full information in respect of his or her income or gain. However, Section 48 of PITA 2011 prohibits the disclosure of such information except: in any legal proceeding arising from PITA or to any tax authority.

If adequately managed, the LIRS data integration would facilitate seamless transfer and sharing of taxpayer’s data between the tax authorities and other stakeholders, simplify the registration process of new taxpayers, eliminate multiple payer IDs, reduce the cost of compliance borne by the taxpayer and the tax authorities, and, ultimately curb tax evasion.