The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi, to appear before it.
The order which was handed down Thursday is for the interior minister and AGF to show cause why the implementation of the proposed expatriates taxation regime should not be stopped.
In a ruling on the plaintiff’s motion ex-parte, the judge, Inyang Ekwo, ordered that the minister and the AGF be served with the motion within three days of the order.
Ekwo issued the order after the plaintiff’s lawyer, Patrick Peter, moved the ex parte motion.
The plaintiff, the New Kosol Welfare Initiative, had sued the Minister of Interior and the AGF as the first and the second defendants, respectively.
The group sought an order of interim injunction restraining the defendants from commencing the implementation of the new Expatriates’ Taxation Regime known as the Expatriate Employment Levy (EEL) in Nigeria, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.
Programme Implementation Coordinator of the group, Raphael Ezeh, in the affidavit filed in support of the application, stated that on Tuesday, 27 February, 2024, the Federal Government of Nigeria unveiled a set of proposed new taxation policy called the Expatriate Employment Levy (EEL).
“According to KPMG and other online information analysts and dissemination agencies, the Federal Government intends to compel all companies and organisations who engage the services of foreign expatriates to pay tax EEL as follows:
“For every expatriate on the level of a director – Fifteen Thousand United States Dollars ($15,000.00) equivalent to Twenty-Three Million Naira, by the current exchange rates (NW23,000,000.00) per annum.
“For every expatriate on a non-director level – Ten Thousand United States Dollars ($10,000.00) equivalent to Sixteen Million Naira, by the current exchange rates (N16,000,000.00) per annum,” he said.
Mr Ezeh averred that the federal government also planned additional regulations consisting of penalties and sanctions for non-compliance with the proposed taxation regime.
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