Business
LIRS Closes Three Firms For N6.02m Unpaid Taxes

Manager, Field/Government Operations, Exxon Mobil, Mr Adeyemi Fakoyejo (right), handing over a key to a bus donated by NNPC/Exxon Mobil to Chairman, Onne Youth Council, Hon Samuel Onwinkore in Port Harcourt, yesterday. With them is member representing Eleme Constituency in the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon Josiah Olu. Egberi A. Sampson
The Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) closed down three companies on Thursday for failing to remit a total of N6.02 million personal income taxes of workers to the state government.
Mrs Oshodi-Sholola, the Head, Distrain Unit of the LIRS, disclosed this after a state-wide tax law enforcement exercise in Lagos, yesterday.
Oshodi-Sholola, who led the enforcement team, said that two companies’ liabilities were for 2012 tax audit year, while one were for 2005 to 2010 audit years.
She said that the tax liabilities of the cosmetics company amounted to N2.26 million, the security firm N851, 573, while the engineering company was N2.91 million.
According to her, LIRS sealed the companies because they did not pay the tax liabilities debited to them by the LIRS nor objected to them.
She said that the three affected companies were a cosmetics company, a hospital and an engineering firm.
Oshodi-Sholola advised corporate organisations to always notify the service of any change in their companies’ name and address for proper records at LIRS office.
She said that such notification would enable LIR to have valid and up-to-date information on the organisations.
According to her, many companies in the state have relocated to unknown destinations, changed addresses or moved out of business without the notice of the LIRS.
“Such acts do not aid the operations of LIRS because it will assume the company still uses its old address/name and we keep sending mails to wrong address.
“If a company liquidates,changes name or address, its management is supposed to write to the necessary authorities informing them of the new developments.
“Such information helps an authority like LIRS to stop accumulating tax liabilities for non-functioning companies,’’ she said.
Oshodi-Sholola said that change in the name and address of a company posed great challenge to the LIRS tax enforcement team when discharging its duties.
The Unit Head said that the team often spent hours trying to locate a company and this, in most cases, proved abortive.