The taxation of services supplied by non-resident foreign companies (NRCs) to Nigerian companies has been an issue of great debate in recent times. On 24 June 2019, the Court of Appeal held, in the case between Vodacom Business Nigeria Limited (Vodacom) v Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) that the supply of satellite bandwidth capacities from an NRC to Vodacom (a Nigerian based company) is subject to Value Added Tax (VAT) in Nigeria. Based on the facts of the case (and only on that strength), the Court of Appeal in the Vodacom case was correct to have subjected supply of bandwidth capacities to Vodacom to VAT. However, the rationale used by the Court to then attempt (as it seemed to do), to assert that all imported services are liable to VAT in Nigeria, appears to be at variance with the express provisions of the VAT Act, which requires that imported services be supplied in Nigeria before VAT liability can arise.
Source: andersentax.ng
