A review of the powers of the federal inland revenue service vis-à-vis rights to privacy and information

Abstract

On the 31st day of May, 2021 the Federal High Court in Nigeria issued a practice direction that is described as The Federal High Court of Nigeria (Federal Inland Revenue Service) Practice Direction, 2021 with 1st day of June, 2021 as its effective date of take-off. Since the publication was released, multiple debates on the constitutionality and legality of some of the provisions of the practice direction continue to generate concerns among taxpayers and the general public. This paper is an examination of the constitutionality or otherwise of the rights to privacy of taxpayers and issues regarding taxes in Nigeria. The paper made further examination of the powers of the FIRS to access tax payers records and the challenges of tax assessment by taxpayers, possible rights of the taxpayers and the responsibility of FIRS as the authorized revenue collecting body of the Federal Government of Nigeria among other related issues. The paper adopts the doctrinal methodology through the X-ray of primary and secondary sources with available data in the area. This paper finds that probing, searching and revenue generation concepts for proper tax administration of Nigeria and for the purpose of generating revenue and increasing the internally generated revenue of the nation and the rights to privacy of taxpayers and the rights of FIRS to administer tax in Nigeria needs to be regulated by the courts.