Stamp Duty Won’t Hike House Rents – FIRS Chair

By Ella Makondo

Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Muhammad Nami, has allayed fears that payment of stamp duty on rents would increase the rentable values of property in the country.

Nami who  made the clarification  on TV Continental (TVC) during a live appearance on the station’s morning show, “Your View”, via video link, said  tenants are to calculate 0.78% of their  rent and pay the fraction to the FIRS office or at any commercial bank.

According to him, it was the responsibility of tenants to   fix stamp duty imprimatur on their  tenancy agreement before  signing  it with their landlord, thus the process does not call for an increase in house rent.

“Stamp duty should not make any landlord to increase his or her rent because it is not to be paid by the landlord. Landlords are not our collecting agents.

“It is the responsibility of the tenant to pay stamp duty and you don’t have to give it to your landlord. As a tenant, calculate 0.78% of your rent and pay that fraction at the FIRS office nearer to you or at your bank. You should then fix the stamp duty imprimatur on the tenancy agreement before you sign it with your landlord. It is as simple as that,” he said.

The FIRS boss equally dismissed as false, claims in some quarters that stamp duty was a creation of the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari or the current leadership of the FIRS.

“Stamp Duty has been a form of tax in Nigeria as far back 1939. It was codified in our laws in 1953, that is before independence. It was consolidated in 2002, published in 2006 and further reworked into the Stamp Duty Act 2004.

“The Joint Tax Board (JTB) where states are represented considered it necessary to bring the stamp duty act to the attention of Nigerians following the recent launch of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Audit and Recovery of Back Years Stamp Duties where the new FIRS Adhesive Stamp Duty was unveiled.”

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