In a move to expand the tax net and encourage business growth, the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has called on social media content creators, Instagram users, and TikTok users with large followings to register their businesses with the commission.
This call is in accordance with the Company and Allied Matters Act 2020 and comes amidst alleged plans by the Federal Inland Revenue Services to onboard media content creators and influencers into its tax system.
The Registrar General of CAC, Hussaini Magaji, made this call on Tuesday during a courtesy visit by the Managing Director of Opay, Dauda Gotring, and his team in Abuja.
The purpose of the visit from the Opay team was to regularise 300,000 agents and merchants with the commission, a move aimed at expanding the tax net, encouraging businesses, and creating more jobs for Nigerians.
Last week, the commission began the registration of two million small businesses in partnership with Moniepoint, a fintech company. The CAC boss stated that social media and content creators are generating a lot of money without paying any form of tax to the Federal Government.
Magaji said, “Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. It is stated in the Company and Allied Matters 2020 that for any business to take place in Nigeria, whether you are doing business with your name or another name, you must surrender your business for registration."
He added that the commission will soon begin compliance checks to ensure these businesses start paying their taxes to the government. He said, “This cannot go on, these groups of people are under mandate to register as a business considering the amount they make from the content creation. The government is all out to ensure every business in Nigeria, no matter what or how, is registered with the CAC."
The CAC boss revealed that the initiative is part of his target to register 20 million businesses in 2024 and achieve a 50 million jobs target for Nigerian youths.
On his part, the Opay MD noted that the idea behind Opay operations is to deliver banking services to the unbanked persons in the country. He said, “Opay is ready to partner with CAC to ensure these groups of people have their businesses registered, with their consent though." Gotring added that since Opay handles these accounts, they are working on sensitising the owners of the accounts so they can be registered with CAC.