CUSTOMS CLEARING PROCESS: TAX IDENTIFICATION NUMBER

Customs Clearing Process depends on the country. Before year 2016, I used my page on the Nigerian Single Window for trade to register Form M/PAAR for clients. What that means is that my company Tax Identification Number (TIN) was used to register Form M/PAAR. Yet, the Import Permit bore the clients’ name.

The client whose name was not usually mentioned in any document had no problem with this arrangement. Thus, all set of clearing documents were in my company name. Smooth cargo clearance was possible with this arrangement. Though the bank had queried this relationship and arrangement on a number of times. The power of attorney was usually sufficient in our defense.

CUSTOMS CLEARING PROCESS: HOW IMPORTER’S TIN BECAME IMPORTANT PART OF PROCESS

Problem began with the introduction of electronic SON Product Certificate/Permits in Nigeria sometime in the year 2016 if I am correct with date. Things became virtually impossible for this kind of synergy. Not because the bank rejected it, but because the electronic system did so without human interface. With this development, it was time for each of such client to get access to the Federal Government of Nigeria Single Window for Trade.

So, I made the recommendation to all clients in this category, and they did just so – validate their tax identification Number with the Nigerian Federal Inland Revenue Services, which is sure way to have access to the single window for trade in Nigeria.

Read Also: FORM M NIGERIA: HOW TO PROCESS AND OBTAIN IT

CUSTOMS CLEARING PROCESS: HOW TO VALIDATE YOUR TAX IDENTIFICATION NUMBER – TIN WITH THE FEDERAL INLAND REVENUE SERVICES:

To validate your tax identifier number TIN with the FIRS if you have one, requires you to first of all approach your unit of FIRS with the 3 CAC documents issued at the time of your company registration. The documents are:

• Certificate of incorporation
• Form CAC 1.1
• The memorandum and Article of Association.

Once presented with those documents, the FIRS will give a link that will take you to the following page.

Otherwise if you have been profiled before you could simply click here to validate your TIN.

CUSTOMS CLEARING PROCESS: WHY IS THE TAX IDENTIFICATION NUMBER – TIN SO IMPORTANT?

• Form M: From the first official document to your import – the Form M, the TIN number is so useful. To login to the Single Window for Trade, to initiate Form M processing, you or your agent or someone designated by you must enter your TIN as the username depicted below:

• SON Product Certificate or SONCAP or Import Permit: the TIN is needed to process any form of permit with the Standard Organisation of Nigeria – SON. This makes it impossible to attach a SON document with a different TIN while on a platform with different TIN number. The response from such page will be and is always “the TIN belongs to a different company”
• The TIN appears in the Form M, PAAR, and the Assessment Report and is useful to the Nigerian Customs and other agencies in the import and export value chain for duty reasons.
• The TIN allows room for accountability and ownership, since it is the primary key in company identification.
• The consignee for any shipment must own the TIN in use.

Read Also: SONCAP PRODUCT CERTIFICATE: SHIPPING TO NIGERIA

In Conclusion:

Tax Identification Number (TIN) used in all Customs Clearing Process. From the process to register Form M and PAAR, the importer must make sure that the TIN number in use belongs to the consignee mentioned in the set of clearing documents in Nigeria. Thank you for reading and understanding this article. In case you know any other information that could help just anyone, please feel free to share or make your contributions here. Don’t forget to drop a comment, like and share our page.

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