Thursday, July 15, 2021

Minimum Tax vs Finance Act 2020

Overview

Income tax is payable on taxable income or profits generated by companies from their activities. There are situations where a company’s tax computation results in no tax liability. In such a situation, the company will be liable to tax based on minimum tax. Section 33 (1) of Companies Income Act, Cap C21, LFN 2004 states that “Notwithstanding any other provisions in this Act where in any year of assessment, the ascertainment of total assessable profits from all sources of a company results in a loss, or where a company's ascertained total profit results in no tax payable or tax payable which is less than the minimum tax, there shall be levied and paid by the company the minimum tax as prescribed by subsection (2) of this section.” By implication, Minimum tax applies to all companies in Nigeria, especially the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), who in any year of assessment have no taxable profit or whose tax payable is lower than minimum tax computed.

There have been many misconceptions and controversies trailing the introduction of the minimum tax in Nigeria in the recent past. Taxpayers and authorities have differed on the concept and application in practice. These include the use of various and different parameters applied in the determination of minimum tax payable by companies which include turnover of the company, gross profit, paid-up capital and net assets of the company. This approach was cumbersome and in most cases, time-consuming. Arguments stressed that this tax is paid from the equity (paid-up capital) and net assets of the company even when the company is running at a loss; the exemption granted to companies with imported equity of 25% and above did not allow for a level playground when compared with companies with locally sourced equity and more. 

Before the amendments introduced by Finance Acts 2019 and 2020, subsection 2 of Section 33 of CITA Cap C21, LFN 2004 defined the basis for the computation of minimum tax in Nigeria as:

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1) of this section the minimum tax to be levied and paid shall- (a) if the turnover of the company is N500,000 or below and the company has been in   business for at least four calendar years be‐

(i)   0.5 per cent of gross profit; or      

(ii)   0.5 per cent of net assets; or      

(iii)   0.25 per cent of paid‐up capital; or      

(iv)   0.25 per cent of the turnover of the company for the year, whichever is higher; or  

(b)   if the turnover is higher than N500,000, be whatever is payable in paragraph (a) of this subsection plus such additional tax on the amount by which the turn‐over is more than N500,000 at a rate which shall be 50 per cent of the rate used in paragraph (a) (iv) of this subsection. 

The federal government in light of these controversies have amended the minimum tax regulation in the Finance Acts 2019 and 2020. Section 14 of the Finance Act 2019 amended Section 33 of CITA to introduce a new basis for computing minimum tax, moving away from a combination of equity, net assets and revenue-based approach to a complete revenue based-model. In the amendment, the minimum tax is to be computed at a flat rate of 0.5% of gross turnover less franked investment income. The amendment also deleted the exemptions granted to companies with imported equity of 25% and above and introduced a minimum tax exemption for small companies with a gross turnover of less than N25,000,000.

Section 13 of Finance Act 2020 introduced a further amendment to Section 33 of CIT by providing a 50% reduction in minimum tax rate from 0.5% of gross turnover less franked investment income to 0.25%. This amendment is effective for the Years of Assessment (YOA) commencing from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2021.

Professional View

Companies that have no taxable profits for the 2020 year of assessment or whose tax on profits is below the minimum tax are expected to compute their minimum tax based on the amendments of the Finance Act 2020. This implies that companies that have filed their returns for the 2020 assessment year based on the 2019 financial accounting year may be expected to file an amended tax return where their minimum tax for this period is based on 0.5% of turnover. Also, companies that are in their first four calendar years of operation as well as companies engaged in agriculture business, or small companies are exempt from minimum tax. This is equally applicable to non-life insurance companies at 0.25% of the gross premium and to life insurance companies at 0.25% of gross income. Also exempted from the payment of minimum tax are small companies with annual turnover of below NGN25 million (twenty-five million naira),

However, it is pertinent to note that foreign equity is no more a basis for exemption. Businesses with at least 25% foreign equity and indigenous companies have the same exposure to Minimum Tax.

Note that dormant companies are not exonerated from payment of minimum tax in Nigeria. Usually, it is assumed that dormant companies are exempted from the payment of taxes because they are not yet involved in any money-making activity. However, this assumption is not supported by any provision in the tax laws and the tax authorities are making every possible effort to ensure that every registered company in Nigeria is made to comply with tax legislation. It is highly recommended that owners of dormant companies in Nigeria should seek the assistance of registered tax practitioners to ascertain their tax exposures. This is because a company is only exempted from paying taxes in Nigeria in the event of cessation of business.

Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Authorised & Issued Share Capital: Explained

 A share is the interest of a shareholder in a company, measured by a sum of money.

What Is Share Capital?

Share capital is the most common way of determining the ownership of a company. In relation to a company limited by share capital, the share capital will be issued to the shareholders when the company is first set up. However, further share capital can be issued at a later date if necessary.

What Is Authorised Share Capital?

Authorised share capital can be defined as the largest amount of share capital that a company can issue. This amount will be agreed on when the company is being incorporated. Again, this amount can be increased at a later date if the shareholders wish.

The authorised share capital does not all have to be paid. It is the maximum value of the share capital and in some cases much of this value may remain unissued. The authorised share capital does not impose an obligation on the shareholder to pay on the winding up of the company, hence why some see authorised share capital as something of limited importance.  

The authorised share capital will tell you the maximum amount of share capital that the company can have and will set out the nominal value of each share.

The articles of association of the company are important as they outline how much authorised share capital the company can potentially issue if changes need to be made down the line. It is common for companies to increase their share capital and if this change is required there are certain documents which will need to be filled out and submitted to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

It should also be noted that the authorised share capital can be divided into different share classes such as preferable or redeemable, each of which are subject to different rights.

What Is Issued Share Capital?

The Dictionary of Company Law describes issued share capital as “the nominal value of the shares actually issued.”

Issued share capital is the amount of capital that is actually paid by the shareholders. This will usually be a smaller amount than the authorised share capital and will be taken up by the shareholders of the company for money or another form of consideration.

If a company is winding up, the issued share capital will be the amount of money that the shareholders will be liable for; therefore, the issued share capital will equal the amount of money that the shareholders will owe if all or part of the shares are unpaid.

If the issued share capital has not all been paid up (paid for) when it is issued, i.e. if the shares are partly paid shares, each shareholder will be liable for the amount owed on any share that they hold if the company goes into liquidation.

The Difference between Authorised Share Capital and Issued and Paid up Share Capital

As explained above, there are different terms that describe the different types of capital that a company has. The term ‘authorised share capital’ refers to a company’s capital in the broadest terms possible. It refers to every share the company would be able to issue if it wanted to, or if it became necessary to. The authorised share capital is set by the company’s shareholders and it can only be increased with their approval.

The ‘issued capital’ and ‘paid-up capital’ is the proportion of the authorised share capital that has actually been raised by issuing shares to shareholders, and for which full payment of the shares has been made by the shareholders to the company. When a company decides to raise funds with capital contribution, it can convert as much of its authorised share capital as it would like into issued share capital by selling shares. Those who receive shares pay money to the company and then become shareholders.

The authorised share capital is therefore the maximum amount of funding that can be raised by issuing company shares. The issued and paid up share capital then refers to the amount of investment shareholders have made in the company.

Accounting for Authorised Share Capital and Issued and Paid up Share Capital

The authorised share capital does not have any monetary impact on the company until it’s issued. Therefore, it does not need to be recorded in the company’s bookkeeping. However, the issued and paid up share capital needs to be accounted for in the company’s books. This is because the selling of shares has had an immediate monetary impact on the company finances: the company has received money.

The authorised share capital of a company is only reported on the Statement of Financial Position (i.e Balance Sheet) for information purposes. It isn’t considered in the totalling of the Statement of Financial Position. The issued and paid up share capital however is accounted for on the company’s Statement of Financial Position and is considered in its totalling.

An Example of Authorised Share Capital

Imagine that you have a company which has an authorised share capital of 500,000 shares, all valued at N0.50 each. The total amount of authorised share capital for the start-up is therefore N250,000. However, the start-up’s issued capital may only be 50,000 shares, and so they will only have N25,000 in capital. It may seem strange for them not to have maxed their authorised share capital out, as they could have an additional N225,000 in capital. But, it’s actually sensible not to do this.

By keeping the shares in the company treasury, the company retains the controlling interest in the business. If the company was to sell all of these shares, then the shareholders would have more influence over the decisions the company makes.

Moreover, if this company was a start-up for example, by keeping the authorised share capital high while the actual issued capital remains low may allow for additional financing rounds from investors. Once again, shareholder approval may not be given if the company has already split stock. If however, the company has held a lot of its stock back, it won’t need to get shareholder approval to go for further funding. If it was then unsuccessful, it still has additional authorised capital it could potentially issue in the future to raise money.

'Segun-Martins Ogunyemi, ACA, ACTI | Principal Consultant, Pro Logic Ideas Consulting | URL: prologicideas.com


The Market of Hope

Oxford dictionary defined hope as a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen. Another version called archaic put i...