Nigerian entertainers who fail to remit or evade tax are now liable to be punished and will face jail term according to the gravity of their case.
A new move from the Nigerian government is set in fine-tuning such plans after the nine-month grace period set out by the recently launched Voluntary Asset and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS).
A statement released indicated that “highly qualified” agents of the federal ministry of finance are working with the banks, Nigeria Financial Intelligent Unit (NFIU), bureau de change (BDCs) and Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
The agencies have been monitoring the degree of tax compliance of many celebrities and high net worth of individuals for the past 15months.
Land ownership, ownership of exotic cars, yachts, private jets and other luxurious properties have also been reviewed to understand the earnings and assets of many Nigerian celebrities, relative to their taxes.
The new development is coming after a Pricewaterhouse Coopers’ 2016-2020 entertainment and media outlook revealed that the Nigerian music industry will pull in an estimated revenue of $51 million (N16bn) from various platforms in 2017 reaching an expected sum of $86 million (N27bn) by 2020.
The outlook also revealed that Nollywood regarded as Africa’s largest movie industry in terms of value and the number of movies produced per year and the second largest film industry in the world in number of annual film productions is estimated to be worth over $800 Million.
