We’ll work with FIRS to prove our tax compliance, says MultiChoice

MultiChoice Nigeria says it has not received any notification from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) over alleged tax evasion.

FIRS, on Thursday morning, announced the appointment of some commercial banks as agents to recover N1.8 trillion from accounts of MultiChoice Nigeria Limited (MCN) and MultiChoice Africa (MCA).

Muhammad Nami, FIRS chairman, said the decision to appoint the banks as agents and freeze the accounts was due to the group’s continued refusal to grant FIRS access to its servers for audit.

In a statement, Bamidele Johnson, the DStv Multichoice media coordinator, said the company would comply with the tax laws of Nigeria.

“MultiChoice Nigeria has not received any notification from FIRS. MultiChoice Nigeria respects and is comfortable that it complies with the tax laws of Nigeria,” the company said.

“We have been and are currently in discussion with FIRS regarding their concerns and believe that we will be able to resolve the matter amicably.”

Multichoice is the owner of the satellite televisions, DStv and Gotv – popular subscription-based platforms in Nigeria.

In May, FIRS had threatened to commence deduction of taxes directly from the bank accounts of defaulters.

The agency said it became necessary as companies, corporations, ministries, departments, agencies (MDAs), and other collection agents illegally withhold taxes.

It said it had served notices to all concerned companies, corporate entities, and other collection agents.