The Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike, has sanctioned a preliminary property tax regulation for the city, marking the commencement of property tax payments for property owners in Abuja.
The FCT-Internal Revenue Service has initiated the implementation of the Capital Gains Tax in the FCT, as outlined in the Capital Gains Tax Act of 2004.
Under this regulation, property owners will be obligated to pay a ten per cent tax on the total amount of chargeable gains arising from the disposal of chargeable assets within a year of assessment.
Haruna Abdullahi, the Executive Chairman of FCT-IRS, revealed this information during a discussion with journalists in Abuja on Sunday. He disclosed that the minister had given approval for several key initiatives aimed at enhancing 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 come up with 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 at the end of the day, he will sign the regulation and 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.”
