Lagos Clarifies Position on Alleged Plan to Seize Bank Deposits of Tax Defaulters

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The Executive Chairman of the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS), Dr. Ayodele Subair, has said that it’s not true that the agency is seeking to seize unpaid taxes directly from defaulting organisations’ accounts using banks and third parties.

He said that instead, what LIRS is out to do is to recover unpaid taxes from organisations,  to help provide amenities for the populace.

Subair said that LIRS will not embark on arbitrary imposition taxes on organisations but that everyone will have a right to contest any of the assessment notices made on them.

Speaking in an interview on Arise News Channel Tuesday night, Subair said  the agency is not in a haste to enforce the new tax law but expects organisations and individuals who are default to voluntarily come forward and pay up.

When asked about the agency’s timeline for implementing the new measure, Subair said: “It will take some time, because we’re still trying to educate people. The reason that we put out a notice really is just to continue that enlightenment and for people to know that this is a position of the law. We do not write the laws.

“We are not policymakers. We  don’t write the laws. What we do is enforce the laws. So we need to let people who do not have knowledge know that this is a mechanism that we can decide to use at any point in time.

“So it’s just really to encourage people to do voluntary compliance, which is what we want. Nobody wants enforcement. We want to increase the level of voluntary compliance. It’s very low at the moment, which is why our tax to GDP ratio is very low. People just do not want to pay their taxes. It’s a global issue”.

Regarding the estimated value of unpaid tax in Lagos,  Subair said it’s difficult to say what amount to expect because it’s dynamic.

He said that although there’s a lot that is ready to be harvested, it will take time for that to happen.

“Let me just state tentatively, yes, and there’s a lot that is ready to be harvested, but it takes time for all these steps to happen. So the plan, even though it came into effect on the first of January 2026 we’re still going to take our time to totally exhaust all the means and possibilities of getting people to voluntarily comply. I know that there’s been an inflection of time

“It’s moving every minute. It’s moving. It’s changing. I mean, when people are convinced that they actually owe, they pay the amounts, and it’s not expected that we’ll have a high amount of liabilities, because people actually have a right to fight and contest their tax assessment” he said.

The LIRS Executive Chairman also said that the agency is aware of the likelihood of people employing litigation to challenge tax assessment charges they are convinced about.

“So, I think that is to be expected. There will always be disputes when  we are making claims, the tax payers feel that maybe what we are asking them for is a bit too high. People will always contest, no matter what laws you have in place, and really, until it’s a democracy we have the rule of law in Nigeria, LRS is a responsible citizen, corporate citizen, and we respect the law.

“So we are not against people who want to dispute or take us to court, but we expect that there will be some litigation,” he added.

On whether there could be some incentive-based options such as amnesty to get these unpaid tax liabilities back in, Subair said that such a policy decision can only be made by the leadership of Lagos state government and the federal government as the case may be.