Tobi Ijalana
Many Nigerians are boiling with anger over a new tax arrangement that the Federal Government has introduced for tenants.
According to the Federal Inland Revenue Service, landlords and property agents are to start charging six per cent Stamp Duty on all tenancy and lease agreements.
The implication is that if your annual rent is N100,000, you have to pay an extra amount of N6,000 to the FIRS, and N60,000 if a million naira.
This is coming at a time that VAT has been increased to 7.5 per cent, while electricity tariff will go up just as vehicle licence as well as passport processing fees are going up.
Yet, observers say, prices of commodities are going up while unemployment and underemployment, now compounded by COVID disruptions, are biting harder.
The Director, Communications and Liaison Department of the FIRS Abdullahi Ahmad, had on Wednesday July 22 landlords were expected to remit such collections to FIRS “so that they do not run foul of the Stamp Duty Act.”
He said, “Property-related transactions like tenancy or lease agreement fall under the Ad Valorem category of the stamp duty which attracts six per cent duty payable in percentage of the total value or sum of the tenancy or lease.
“The burden of payment of the six per cent lies on the beneficiary of the tenancy or lease agreement, whom the Stamp Duty Act identified as the tenant or renter.
“The responsibility of collection and remittance fall on the landlord or agent in charge of the property for lease or rent. The party making the payment shall have the obligation to account for the applicable stamp duties.”
Other Stamp Duty types and their rates include Appraisement or Valuation of Property , 5 per cent; Certificate of Occupancy and Partnership, N1,000 flat rate; Gift of Land, 1.5 per cent and Legal Mortgage, 0.375 per cent, Legal Mortgage (Upstamping), 0.375 per cent; Deed of Conveyance or Transfer on Sale of Property, 1.5 per cent; Memorandum of Understanding (Related to Land, Sales, Joint Venture, Surrender, Subdivision Agreements, 1.5 per cent; Power of Attorney (Irrevocable/Land Related), 1.5 per cent and Sales Agreement, 1.5 per cent.
Here are what some Nigerians are saying, as seen on Linder Ikeji Blog (sic):
THIS GOVERNMENT IS COMPLETELY INSENSITIVE TO THE PLIGHT OF ITS CITIZENS. THEY ARE ONLY INTERESTED IN SEEING THE CITIZENS SUFFER. THEY JUST WANT TO CONTINUE MILKING THE CITIZENS, SO THEY CAN GATHER MORE MONIES TO LOOT. GOD FORBID THIS PLEASE.
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God go punisH … then thunder go strike the d person who suggested this idea. We are badly hit by poor running and managent of the economy, Coronavirus also made things worse and now you want to add another one on the masses because y’all are not tenants but landlords. Very soon landlords will increase the rents. Shame on me that I voted these morons into power.
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You people can see that these ‘Pen-rubbers’ a.k.a. APC have zero conscience. They inflict pains on Nigerians with impunity. You can also see that hardship has no Tribe and we MUST stop defending this evil regime cos of sentiments. Don’t you all think that these evil men must be laughing at all of us. Their thinking is that we are toothless bulldogs; and sadly they are right. Walahi! What have these men not done to Nigerians and yet we’ve remained unprovoked. Even when some persons try to fight back, we will shout them with tribalism or accuse them of not being righteous enough. Smh. With these mind sets of our eh, this country CAN NEVER see any good governance.
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How???? As a result rents will increase! There won’t be agency fee or legal fees??? Where the fuck is the NBA??! Y’all are campaigning but none of you will see this bullshit!! This is what happens when you put illiterates in charge and all this will be enforced but not in the north!! Are you people not seeing the fuckery that is going on??!!!
These thieves in govt keep devising means of stealing the common man dry without doing anything but squandering the money on themselves. When it’s time to account for the funds they
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