Haruna Abdullahi, the acting-chairman of Federal Capital Territory Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS), has cautioned taxpayers against engaging tax advisors to doctor tax records and conceal documents.

During his appearance on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) flagship programme in Abuja, Mr Abdullahi warned that taxpayers found to have conspired with tax advisors would bear the consequences.

“Any taxpayer that buys into misguided information on filing tax returns will face the wrath of the law,” he said.

However, he said consultants and tax practitioners had been of tremendous help in providing guidance and advice on tax matters, but some were not living up to expectations.

“So, we are engaging professional bodies like Chartered Institute of Taxation (CITN) and Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) relating to unethical practice.

“We engage them because consultants are mainly members of these associations.

“However, the issues of taxation is a personal responsibility of the individual.

“If you allow someone to misguide you as a taxpayer when you have avenues to educate yourself on what to do, it is you that the tax man will come after,” he said.

Mr Abdullahi said the service had mechanisms to detect such unwholesome practices, adding that there was no hiding place for dubious individuals.

The FCT-IRS boss said that in most cases, the service was armed with additional information to show that a taxpayer was concealing some details.

Last month, the FCT-IRS boss said about 90 per cent of the residents do not file tax returns.

(NAN)