The Federal Inland Revenue Service has clarified the directive on self certification by bank account holders.

Recall that there was serious outrage yesterday after the Federal Government had through Twitter ordered that all bank account holders in Nigeria should obtain the self certification forms from their bank and re-register their accounts.

The tweet was later deleted and the government apologized for misleading people.

FIRS Nigeria using its official twitter account @firsNigeria has clarified the issue.

It wrote:

This is to clarify the publication for financial institutions account holders in Nigeria to complete the self certification form, pursuant to the Income Tax (Common Reporting Standard) Regulations 2019 which is for the fulfilment of Automatic Exchange of Information Requirements.

The Self Certification form is basically to be administered on Reportable persons holding accounts in Financial institutions that are regarded as “Reportable Financial Institutions” under the CRS. Reportable persons are often non-residents.

and other persons who have residence for tax purposes in more than one jurisdiction or Country. Financial Institutions are expected to administer the Self Certification form on such account holders when information at its disposal indicates that the Account holder is a person

resident for tax purpose in more than one jurisdiction. The information that indicates an account holder is a resident for tax purposes in more than one jurisdiction,is expected to be available to Financial Institutions during account opening processes for the KYC and AML purpose