The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has issued a public notice directing all the reportable persons to obtain, complete and submit a Self-Certification Form to their respective financial institutions pursuant to the Income Tax (Common Reporting Standard) Regulation 2019. The Reportable Persons/Entities are non- residents or corporate entities who have presence in more than one country or having more than one tax jurisdiction.

According to the public notice issued by the FIRS on Thursday September 17, 2020, every reportable person/entity that are account holders in Financial Institutions (Commercial Banks, Merchant Banks, Discount Houses, Montage or Development Banks, Insurance & Life Assurance Companies, Assets Management Companies etc.)  are expected to obtain, complete, and submit a Self-Certification Form which will be used to determine their tax residency and country to share information with under the Automatic Exchange of Information – Common Reporting Standards (AEOI-CRS).

The self-certificate form is in three (3) categories namely:

1. Self-certificate for Entity (Persons other than individuals.
2. Self-certificate for Controlling Persons (Individuals having controlling interest i.e 25% or more in a legal person, a trustee, settlor, or beneficiary in respect of a trust)
3. Self-certificate for Individuals (All individual account holders)

The exercise will be used to determine the beneficial ownership and control in case of corporate accounts for reporting purpose. Subsequently, FIRS indicated its desire to sanction reportable persons/entities who fail to comply with this directive. The sanction for non-compliance may include monetary penalty or inability to operate the account.