Due to suspected tax evasion, the Federal Government has filed criminal charges against well-known cryptocurrency exchange site Binance.
The Federal Inland Revenue Service, or FIRS, revealed the accusations on Monday. They were filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The case, which has the case number FHC/ABJ/CR/115/2024, accuses Binance of four counts of tax evasion.
According to a statement released by FIRS and provided to News Men on Monday, the action was taken to protect Nigeria’s economic integrity and promote fiscal responsibility. Dare Adekanmbi is the Executive Chairman of the service’s Special Advisor for Media.
Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla, two senior officials of Binance who are now in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or EFCC, have joined the cryptocurrency business as second and third defendants in the lawsuit.
Binance is facing allegations related to not paying Value-Added Tax, VAT, Company Income Tax, not filing tax filings, and assisting consumers in avoiding taxes by using its platform.
In the lawsuit, the FG also charged Binance with breaking national tax laws and failing to register with FIRS for tax purposes.
As to the statement, one of the lawsuit’s claims concerns Binance’s purported inability to gather and send different kinds of taxes to the federation, as required by Section 40 of the FIRS Establishment Act 2007 as modified.
The Act’s Section 40 specifically targets the failure to deduct and remit taxes, imposing fines and maybe even jail time on noncompliant corporations.
The allegations went on to list specific instances in which Binance was alleged to have broken tax regulations, including neglecting to produce invoices for VAT reasons, which prevented subscribers from determining and paying their taxes.
Adekanmbi said “Any company that transacts business in excess of N25 million annually is deemed by the Finance Act to be present in Nigeria.
“According to this rule, Binance falls into that category. So, it has to pay taxes like Company Income Tax, CIT and also collect and pay Value Added Tax, VAT.
“But Binance did not do this properly. So, the company broke Nigerian laws and could be investigated and taken to court for this infraction.”
