{"id":36457,"date":"2021-10-26T19:49:44","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T18:49:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=36457"},"modified":"2021-10-26T19:49:44","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T18:49:44","slug":"south-africa-firm-multichoice-africa-loses-legal-battle-on-342m-tax-to-firs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=36457","title":{"rendered":"South Africa firm, Multichoice Africa, owners of DSTV, GOtv, loses legal battle over $342M tax to FIRS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By <strong>Yemi Oyeyemi<\/strong>,&nbsp; Abuja<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The long drawn legal battle between the South African Company, Multichoice Africa Holdings B.V with the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) over the disputed $342M tax has been struck out.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Tax Appeal Tribunal on Tuesday struck out the appeal instituted by the company for want of diligent prosecution and ordered It to pay up the $342M tax assessment handed over to It by the FIRS.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Multichoice Africa Holdings is the parent company of Multichoice Nigeria and has engaged FIRS in a fierce legal battle to challenge the assessment of the FIRS on it of unpaid Value Added Tax (VAT) amounting to over $123.7 Million.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The tribunal while delivering its judgment on the appeal filed by the company upheld the preliminary objection of the FIRS against the appeal of Multichoice Africa Holdings B.V.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Tribunal stated that the South African company did not comply with Order 3 Rule 6 of the Tax Appeal Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 2021, which requires that an appellant is to deposit half of the assessed amount it is disputing before it can be heard on appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition to depositing the sum, the appellant is required to file along with its appeal an affidavit verifying the payment which the company also failed to comply with.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the Tribunal, the sum is to be paid as a security for the hearing of any tax appeal. The rule states that \u201cfor an appeal against the tax authority, the aggrieved person will pay 50% of the disputed amount into designated account by the Tribunal before hearing as security for prosecuting the appeal\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">FIRS had served a notice of unpaid VAT on Multichoice Africa Holdings B.V. but the company vehemently challenged the assessment and filed an appeal at the tribunal.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It however failed to comply with provisions of tax laws by the refusal to make the required deposit as stipulated by the Tribunal Rules.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the ruling, the FIRS is expected to enforce the payment of the principal sum of $123.7 million being unpaid VAT by Multichoice Africa Holdings B.V. as well as interest and penalty at $218 Million, totaling over $342 Million.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It will be recalled that the FIRS had served Multichoice Africa Holdings B.V. a notice of assessment of unpaid VAT on the 16th of June 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The company consequently appealed the assessment at the Tax Appeal Tribunal on the ground of being too excessive.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Multichoice Africa Holdings, the parent company of Multichoice Nigeria, though providing services to its Nigerian arm was said not to have paid Value Added Tax since inception.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Yemi Oyeyemi,&nbsp; Abuja The long drawn legal battle between the South African Company, Multichoice Africa Holdings B.V with the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) over the disputed $342M tax has been struck out. The Tax Appeal Tribunal on Tuesday struck out the appeal instituted by the company for want of diligent prosecution and ordered [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":36458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4091,125,3673],"class_list":["post-36457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-342m","tag-firs","tag-multichoice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}