2023 Annual Tax Returns: Oyo govt insists on Jan’ 31 deadline for employers of labour

BY STEPHEN GBADAMOSI

The Oyo State government has said that January 31, 2024 is the deadline for filing the year 2023 annual tax returns by corporate employers of labour.

The government also said individual employers of labour had the 31st of March 2024 as deadline.

The annual tax returns require every taxpayer to state the turnover of each business and salaries deducted, as well as the tax remitted to the Oyo State government through the Board of Internal Revenue in the previous year.

According to a statement by the state Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Prince Dotun Oyelade, on Thursday, the Executive Chairman of the state Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Adebowale Olufemi Awakan, made this known to journalists in his office.

“The returns must be made by 31st January of the year for corporate bodies, while individual business owners must file, latest 31st of March, 2024,” he said.

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Awakan noted that filing of annual tax returns is pursuant to the provision of Section 81(2) of the Personal Income Tax Act Cap P8 LFN 2004, as amended, (hereafter referred to as PITA), which states that: “Every employer shall be required to file a return with the relevant tax authority of all employments paid to its employees, not later than 31st January of every year in respect of all employees in its employment in the preceding year.”

He stated further that this was a law which all employers of labour ought to obey by collecting the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) of their employees and remitting the same to the government.

He warned that non-compliance would attract penalties, including a fine of N500,000 for corporate bodies and legal liability for owners and principal officers of such entities, as well as fine of N25,000 for individuals and N5,000 for every month the returns was not rendered.

In addition, he said business owners and directors might be denied Tax Clearance Certificate of their businesses and employees, if they were in default of the remittance of annual tax returns.

“All returns are to be filed online via the self-service platform. Kindly log on to https://www.selfservice.oyostatebir.com to upload the returns and for any other interaction with the Oyo State Internal Revenue Service. You can call 09034423126, 07012990552,” he concluded.