BACKGROUND
This is an appeal against the Respondent's Notice of Additional/Amended Assessment No: LTO/NON-OILILAG/AUDIGAIEDT/018 dated 27 March 2017 of W14,281,060.00 (Fourteen Million, Two Hundred and Eighty-One Thousand, Sixty Naira) for the Appellant's 2016 year of assessment.
It was on the failure of the Respondent to discharge the EDT (now called the Tertiary Education Tax, TET) Notice of Additional/Amended Assessment or to issue a Notice of Refusal to Amend the said Assessment that Appellant commenced the instant Appeal vides her Notice of Appeal dated 18 July 2019 and filed on 19 July 2019 wherein she sought the setting aside of the EDT Notice of Additional/Amended Assessment as well as a declaration that the Appellant was not liable to pay the Respondent any additional EDT for the 2016 year of assessment.
The Appellant is a company engaged in the business of hospitality and entertainment duly registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission in Nigeria. The Respondent is a body, agency of the Federal Government of Nigeria vested with the power to administer, assess and collect all taxes due or accruing to the Federal Government of Nigeria including the tax in dispute.
In the exercise of its statutory duties, the Respondent conducted a tax audit on the Appellant for the 2014 and 2015 financial years. By a letter dated 27th of March 2017 (but delivered to the Appellant on the 31st of May 2017), the Respondent informed the Appellant of the Appellant's additional liability to TET in the sum of N14,281,060.00 (Fourteen Million, Two Hundred and Eighty -One Thousand, Sixty Naira) only for the 2016 year of assessment on the grounds that the turnover reported by the Appellant was less than its actual turnover, the sums recorded as impairment/bad debt by the Appellant were non-allowable expenses for the purpose of determining the Appellant's assessable profits, and there was a difference between the cost of sales reported by the Appellant during the audit and the Appellant's actual cost of sales.
The Appellant through its consultant by a letter of 30 May 2016 (sic) responded to the additional assessment insisting that the Respondent's computation of the Appellant's turnover did not take into account the Appellant's internal revenue arising from promotions and incentives given to its customers as a reward for their patronage, impairment/bad debt ought to be allowed as deductible expenses; and the cost of sales figure utilised by the Respondent did not correlate with Lhe AppellanL's computation in itt; trial balance and financial statements for the relevant accounting year.
By a letter dated 3 April 2017 delivered on the 31st of May 2017, the Respondent forwarded to the Appellant a TET Notice of Additional/Amended Assessment No: LTOINONOIL/LAG/AUD/GAIEDT/018 of March 27, 2017 restating the additional assessment of N14,281,060 .0O(Fourteen Million, Two Hundred and Eighty-One Thousand, Sixty Naira) for the 2016 year of assessment. Dissatisfied with the Notice of Additional/Amended Assessment, the Appellant's consultant issued a Notice of Objection dated June 12, 2017. The Respondent did not discharge the TET Notice of Additional/Amended Assessment or to issue a Notice of Refusal to Amend the said Assessment. Hence, the Appellant filed this Appeal on the 19th of July 2019 seeking an order of this Honourable Tribunal setting aside the TET Notice of Additional/ Amended Assessment and a declaration that the Appellant was not liable to pay the Respondent any additional EDT for the 2016 year of assessment. The Respondent entered appearance when it filed a Respondent's Reply dated the 5th of February 2020.