BEPS之IF成员尼日利亚至今拒绝签署“双支柱”协议，仍将计划推进“数字服务税（DST）”立法
编译整理：思迈特国际税务服务团队
截至目前，BEPS包容性框架下141个成员中的137个国家（地区）已就“双支柱”解决方案达成共识，其中只有肯尼亚、尼日利亚、巴基斯坦和斯里兰卡尚未同意相关方案提议。而经过美国与多国的积极谈判和游说，英国、奥地利、法国、意大利、西班牙、土耳其及印度等7国已经承诺在支柱一生效后，将取消征收数字服务税以及其他相关类似单边措施。然而，就在大家认为会有越来越多的国家承诺取消征收数字服务税之际，加拿大却无视其刚与OECD签署的协议（加拿大是10月8日签署“双支柱”方案的135个成员之一），拟推进数字服务税立法，让各国感到十分意外，其中特别是美国表示坚决反对。相关内容详见tpperson微信公众号的往期系列推文：
1.《应“双支柱”方案要求，多国已经承诺在支柱一生效后将取消征收数字服务税以及其他相关类似单边措施》
2.《加拿大无视刚签署的“双支柱“协议，执意推进数字服务税立法，美国表示坚决反对》
与加拿大不同，尼日利亚早前就和肯尼亚、巴基斯坦和斯里兰卡等3个发展中国家一样，尚未同意相关方案提议，因此，其推出数字服务税可以说是意料之中。2021年12月31日，尼日利亚总统MuhammaduBuhari签署了《2021年财政法案》，在该法案中，涉及数字服务税的税收政策引人注目。根据尼日利亚财政部长Zainab Ahmed介绍，针对“提供应用程序、高频交易、电子数据存储和在线广告等数字服务”的外国企业，除了要对其利润“以公平且合理的比例”征税外，还需要对其在尼日利亚消费者中赚取的总收入中，按照6%的税率征收其数字服务税。
尼日利亚是非洲人口最多的国家，其一直积极参与国际税收改革议程，但其没有支持取消数字服务税这一举措。究其原因，尼日利亚税务机关官员表示支柱一主张的重新分配征税权可能增加遵从成本；若同意取消数字服务税，可能将影响尼日利亚的税收收入。
尼日利亚税务机关负责人在2021年11月24日的网络研讨会就曾表示：“我们对规则设计可能给发展中国家带来潜在税收负面影响的担忧没有得到解决，因此尼日利亚在此时放弃对此项规则作出承诺”。同时，尼日利亚税务机关高级官员也表示：对于发展中国家来说，双支柱的普遍问题是“实施成本高”；其他非洲国家税务机关官员和专家也在会上表示，发展中国家普遍担心其没有足够的征管能力，而且OECD也没有说服这些非洲国家，实施双支柱方案一定会给税收带来影响。
尼日利亚税务机关负责人早在2021年8月就曾透露，尼日利亚拒绝签署协议的原因主要是对支柱一的担忧，其主张取消所有数字服务税及任何类似的措施将直接冲击尼日利亚一直以来享有的征税权，而且蓝图设想中的争端解决机制也不符合尼日利亚的宪法。
该协议对各具体国家的经济影响的评估也是不可靠的。尼日利亚税务机关负责人对此表示：“特别是对于尼日利亚，当我们计算这些数字时，与OECD提供给我们的数字相去甚远”。他认为OECD对尼日利亚的评估是错误的，尽管OECD称支柱二将在每年为全球带来1500亿美元的新税收，但他认为几乎不会有新税收流入发展中国家。支柱一的目的不是带来新税收，而是重新分配常规利润，尼日利亚政府和企业都表达了这将会增加遵从成本的担忧。
尼日利亚税务机关负责人称尼日利亚不会做全球税改的破坏者，会继续在包容性框架下参与谈判，如果前述担忧得到了解决，那么尼日利亚将考虑签署协议。
附两则英文报道如下：
1、Nigeria To Assess 6% Digital Services Tax On Foreign Cos.
Jan 5,2022,7:12PM EST
By Kevin Pinner
Nigeria's finance minister said Wednesday the country's tax authority plans to begin collecting a 6% digital services tax on nonresident digital companies' gross revenue earnedfrom Nigerian customers, along with a separate tax on profits.
Zainab Ahmed told anews conference broadcasted online from Abuja she was empowering the FederalInland Revenue Service to assess nonresident firms that provide servicesincluding apps, high-frequency trading, data storage and online advertising.She added that a separate tax on a "fair and reasonable percentage"of profits earned from providing digital services to Nigerian customers wouldbe collected.
"The rationalefor this is to modernize the taxation of [information and communications technology] and the digital economy in line with current realities," Ahmedsaid.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, has been an active participant in international taxreform negotiations, but it refrained from endorsing an Oct. 8 blueprint that included a ban on DSTs.
On Dec. 31, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law Finance Act, 2021, which updates several aspects of tax policy including the DST, along with the 2022 Appropriation Act, both of which Ahmed presented to the public Wednesday.
Ahmed said Nigeriaalso plans to reduce the compliance burden on nonresident taxpayers who aren't required to register for value-added tax obligations in the country.Additionally, the finance act clarifies that the FIRS can appoint people including nonresidents to collect and remit those taxes.
VAT obligations will mainly apply to nonresident digital companies such as Amazon that provide services to Nigerian customers without a taxable presence, Ahmed said.
"So if you visit Amazon, we are expecting Amazon to add a VAT charge to whatever transaction you're paying," she told the news conference. "I'm using Amazon as anexample; we're going to be working with Amazon to agree to be registered as atax agent by the FIRS."
Last month, Ahmedtold a forum of African tax authorities that Nigeria had articulated concernsat every stage of the global tax negotiations led by the Organization forEconomic Cooperation and Development, but ultimately decided to reject the two-pillar solution for taxing the digital economy.
A top FIRS official had said earlier in December that the government feared enacting the deal would result a net loss in revenue, while the country's delegate to the OECD talks to ld Law360 in August that his nation would hold out over concerns its constitutionally enumerated taxing rights would be threatened.
A spokesperson forthe FIRS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
--Editing by VincentSherry.
2、Nigeria Declined OECD Tax Deal Over Fears Of Lost Revenue
Dec 2, 2021, 4:11 PM EST
By Kevin Pinner
Nigeria didn't signthe global tax agreement that most of the world's economies agreed to becauseits officials feared a net negative impact on revenue, according to a statement provided to Law360 by the country's tax authority.
Africa's most populous country helped lead negotiations on the so-called two-pillar solutionto taxing the digital economy endorsed Oct. 8 by nearly 140 jurisdictions ledby the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to the statement released Tuesday by Nigeria's Federal Inland Revenue Service.However, top FIRS officials projected that high costs of compliance, coupled with the scope of real located taxing rights, would cause the Nigerian government to lose money.
"Our concerns onpotential negative revenue returns that the rule designs would have fordeveloping countries were unaddressed, [so] Nigeria abstained from committing to the rules at this time," Muhammad Lawal Abubakar, executive chairman atFIRS, said during a webinar Nov. 24, according to the statement.
The agreement'sPillar One envisions new taxing rights for jurisdictions where companies makesales without a physical presence, while Pillar Two would set a 15% minimum taxrate starting in 2023 for multinational corporations that have annual revenueabove €750 million ($847 million).
Aside from Nigeria,Kenya, Pakistan and Sri Lanka also held out from signing as members of the OECDand Group of 20's inclusive framework on base erosion and profit shifting, thegroup negotiating the deal. None of the four have officially left thenegotiating table.
"The general issues that developing countries have with the outcome … is the high cost of implementation," said Mathew Olusanya Gbonjubola, a top official at FIRS and a vice chair of the inclusive framework's powerful steering committee,during the webinar, according to the statement.
Developing countriesare concerned they won't be able to administer the deal, which, even if carriedout properly, the OECD hasn't convinced them will provide a positive return,based on views shared by African tax officials and experts at a conferenceTuesday.
Gbonjubola had told Law360in August that Nigeria wouldn't sign the deal in its current form because of concerns about Pillar One. A call to remove all measures similar to digital services taxes now and in the future could impinge on taxing rights Nigeria has enjoyed for decades, he said, while the envisioned dispute resolution mechanism would conflict with the country's constitution.
FIRS bolstered hisreasons Tuesday. The country-specific economic impact assessments of the deal'smain tenets were unreliable, according to Gbonjubola.
"Particularlyfor Nigeria, when we ran the numbers, it was way off [from] the figures thatthe OECD gave us," he said.
At the OECD,Gbonjubola said, "somebody just looked at the GDP of Nigeria, and saysNigeria's GDP is this much, and then they should be able to buy this number ofshoes and things like that."
The margin of errorfor such estimates is wide, Gbonjubola said, and he's convinced the OECD iswrong about how the deal would affect his nation.
The OECD has said it estimates Pillar Two would raise $150 billion in new tax revenue annually.Pillar One is not intended to create new revenue, but rather to redistribute routine profits. Governments and companies have expressed concerns it will raise compliance costs.
Although Gbonjubola expects almost no new revenue to flow into developing countries, he said that'snot a deal-breaker, adding that it's because the pillars come packaged together that Nigeria is rejecting both.
"Since we are rejecting Pillar One, we can't take on Pillar Two," he said.
The OECD has saidcountries will need to ratify a multilateral convention to carry out PillarOne, but not Pillar Two.
Nigeria will continueto participate in negotiations at the inclusive framework, FIRS said. If theissues it has presented are addressed in a later version, the country will signup, according to the statement.
The OECD did not respond to requests for comment.
--Editing by NeilCohen.
