Africa’s largest pay TV conglomerate, MultiChoice Group (MCGJ.J), on Thursday said it is set to pay a total tax payment of about $37.3 million to the Nigerian tax authorities.
This follows the settlement of a lingering tax dispute between the parties.
In 2022, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) took action by freezing MultiChoice Nigeria’s accounts and the Group was issued a tax claim totalling 1.8 trillion naira ($1.27 billion) for its operations in Nigeria, along with a separate claim of $342 million for value-added taxes.
However, the group announced that the combined tax liability of N35.4 billion, owed by MultiChoice Nigeria and MultiChoice Africa Holdings, will be deducted from the security deposits and good faith payments made thus far.
In March 2022, the FIRS and MultiChoice Nigeria agreed to an out-of-court settlement of their pending tax disputes over a $4.4 billion tax settlement.
Subsequently, the South African company withdrew all pending lawsuits and the Federal Inland Revenue Service agreed to conduct a forensic audit of MultiChoice’s accounts to determine the company’s tax liability.
MultiChoice went to court in 2021 to challenge the penalty imposed by the tax authority, which said the owner of the DSTV service skipped taxes and denied auditors access to its servers.
However, both parties agreed to an amicable resolution of their issues which had led to a series of lawsuits.
hasn’t made in tax payments.
