The approval of a draft property tax regulation for Abuja by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, signals a significant shift, compelling property owners in the city to initiate payments of property taxes.
The FCT-Internal Revenue Service has concurrently initiated the enforcement of Capital Gains Tax in compliance with the provisions of the Capital Gains Tax Act of 2004, reflecting a concerted effort to enhance revenue generation and financial sustainability in the capital region.
The Capital Gains Tax mandates the payment of a ten percent tax on the total amount of chargeable gains accruing to any person on the disposal of chargeable assets in a year of assessment.
Haruna Abdullahi, the Executive Chairman, of FCT-IRS, made this disclosure when he spoke to journalists in Abuja on Sunday.
Abdullahi said the minister had approved some key initiatives to drive revenue for the FCT.
He said, “In the last three weeks, the minister has approved some initiatives that are huge and will certainly change the dynamics in terms of the bottom line. Just the other day, we submitted a draft proposal to the minister for the FCT property tax regulation.
“The FCT-IRS Act empowers the minister to develop a property tax regulation for the FCT. So we had a long conversation and we suggested it to the minister, and he asked us to come up with a draft regulation, which we did, and he has approved the initiative.
“So we have an inter-agency collaboration whereby we review it because the draft was just done by the FCT-IRS, but that’s not enough, you need other stakeholders. So he approved the initiative to go ahead and review the draft and then come back.
“Subsequently, he will sign the regulation at the end of the day and it is gazetted and implemented. So that alone should tell you that there is a huge positive impact on the bottom line of the IGR in the city.”
