If you own a business or social enterprise in Nigeria, you cannot avoid CAC. But the level of carelessness and poor customer service at CAC can drive a SAINT crazy.
As patriotic citizens, we filed our non-profit taxes and submiitted copies of the tax returns to CAC as required by the law. The process of doing this can be frustrating for non-profits, but we did it.
First, you need to get your statement audited by a certified auditor. They charge fees. We paid. Then you go to CAC to submit it. They will give you a ticket to take to their choice bank to pay CAC fees. Then you come back to CAC to submit the bank teller. CAC will review your returns, approve and file. CAC expects or requires a lawyer to do this for non-profits. So, you have to pay a lawyer to do all these for you. We paid.
We did all these only to knock at CAC office a month ago for the certified true copies of our tax returns but met an empty CSAAE file at CAC. Someone did not put the documents in the file and the documents cannot be found.
We are in 2019, yet CAC is carrying papers about. Can’t we turn in these documents online and have them stored online by CAC? Must we go to Abuja to file taxes? Can’t we file online from anywhere in the world?
What is wrong with the director of CAC? The fees they collect from us can be used to build a robust online platform for this. Why make citizens run around, waste time, energy and money for something that can be done online?
Here in U.S., we file CSAAE taxes known as form 990 online. I don’t even know where IRS office is and it is free. You can do it yourself or use a tax preparer and pay for his or her services. All our 990s are online and anyone can access them. This is not rocket science, CAC. This is not!!
