Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has approved a preliminary draft of property tax regulations for the city.
The impending implementation of this regulation will require property owners in the city to promptly settle taxes on their properties.
In adherence to the Capital Gains Tax Act 2004, the FCT-Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS) has initiated the enforcement of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) in Abuja.
Chargeable assets’ disposal in a given assessment year triggers a 10 percent tax on the total chargeable gains, considering allowable deductions, as imposed by the CGT.
FCT-IRS’s Executive Chairman, Haruna Abdullahi, foresees a substantial increase in FCT’s revenue through the expected property tax regulation and the comprehensive enforcement of CGT.
FCT-IRS’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) has seen substantial growth, reaching around N140 billion, and the implementation of these new measures is anticipated to foster additional IGR expansion, as noted by Abdullahi.
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In his statement, he clarified that the property tax regulation is intended to give the minister the ability to establish a customized property tax framework for the FCT.
‘In the last three weeks, the minister has approved some initiatives that are huge and will certainly change the dynamics in terms of the bottom line. Just the other day, we submitted a draft proposal to the minister for the FCT property tax regulation,’ Abdullahi said.
‘The FCT-IRS Act empowers the minister to come up with a property tax regulation for the FCT. So we had a long conversation and we suggested it to the minister, and he asked us to come up with a draft regulation, which we did, and he has approved the initiative.’
As per his statement, the FCT-IRS has crafted the regulation, received ministerial approval, and is now poised to undergo scrutiny by relevant stakeholders before final approval and gazetting by the minister.
He made it clear that the minister has endorsed the full implementation of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) in Abuja, emphasizing its role in elevating the FCT’s revenue targets.