The Federal Inland Revenue Services on Monday said that purported tax remittances by Leaders and Company Limited, Publishers of ThisDay newspaper, on behalf of a former Editor of the newspaper, Paul Ibe, are not in its database.
The revelation was made at the continued trial in the matter brought by Ibe against Leaders and Company Limited and its Chairman/CEO, Nduka Obaigbena, at the National Industrial Court in Abuja.
Ibe a former Editor of THISDAY on Saturday and Editor, Nation’s Capital had in July 2011 in suit No NIC/ABJ/26/2011 dragged Obaigbena and Leaders and Company Limited to court over alleged non remittances of his pension and taxes (PAYE) to the relevant agencies.
He has also asked the court to declare that the procedure adopted by the defendant that led to the termination of his employment on July 13, 2010 was unlawful, illegal and in bad faith.
Garba Gusau, Manager, Tax Operations Group of the FIRS, told the court, presided over by Justice M. N. Esowe, that a search of FIRS database as it relates to tax remittances for Ibe revealed there was no record.
Led in evidence by Barrister Noble Ifeme for the claimant, Gusau, who said his work includes among others monitoring of tax offices in relation to collection of taxes, confirmed that he authored the letter from FIRS with respect to Ibe’s tax, which had already been admitted in evidence by the court.
He said that the letter, dated July 5, 2011, and addressed to Messrs Noble Ifeme and Co and titled “Re: Request for confirmation of tax remittance and TIN number”, followed a letter from Barrister Noble dated June 6, 2011 seeking confirmation of tax remittance and TIN number of Ibe during his more than 12 years employment with ThisDay.
Asked by Noble if the letter before the court from the FIRS was a true reflection of the facts, Garba confirmed that as at the time he caused to write the letter of July 5, 2011, “there was no record of remittance” with respect to Ibe.
“As at the time the inquiry was made, we (FIRS) searched through our records and there was no remittance with respect to Mr. Paul Ibe. All remittances are reflected in our system,” the FIRS official said.
Under cross examination by Barrister Samuel Zibiri (Esq.), Garba acknowledged that under the pay as you earn regime, employers are expected to remit the tax of their staff.
Asked if Leaders and Company Limited is registered with the FIRS in line with statutory provisions, Garba noted that even if that is the case, there are no remittances with respect to Ibe.
When asked by Zibiri if he was aware that the head office of ThisDay newspaper is in Lagos, Garba insisted that a search at the headquarters of FIRS in Abuja revealed that Ibe is not on the database of the tax agency.
At this point, Zibiri put forward some documents to Garba, which sought to confirm that ThisDay was a tax paying company, but the FIRS official said that he was in no position to confirm the authenticity of the documents because they are not certified by FIRS.
Zibiri then asked for an adjournment to enable him have the documents, which he said is germane to his case, verified by the appropriate department of FIRS.
The court thereafter adjourned till October 19, 2013 for the conclusion of the cross examination of Garba.
Earlier, Ibe had ended his cross examination by Zibiri, counsel for both Obaigbena and Leaders and Company Limited.
Counsel to Ibe had at the penultimate trial in July informed the court that the out of court settlement at the instance of Obaigbena/Leaders and Company Limited did not yielded conclusive results.
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