Tax invasion charges: Can Nigerian government win Binance?

[EarnOnVictor]

https://punchng.com/fg-files-tax-evasion-charges-against-binance

Pardon me for saying I've known the Nigerian government to be clueless and forceful, but with no good results to back it up. They rather act before thinking, perhaps their brains are under their feet. Because their policies and resolves in situations are likened to using the medicine for headaches to cure stomach aches. I just don't know how we got here.

It's no news that the Nigerian government has been trying to punish Binance for their own ignorance. I am not a Binance fan due to their many ignoble acts, yet the Nigerian government should have applied wisdom to the whole situation. From the beginning even before we got here, I've always held the stance that the Nigerian government should make Binance and the likes accountable by forcing them to be duly registered and regulated. By that, the government can gain more oversight (security and accountability) and also get the taxes due for the country. This would have been a win-win for the government, but they are just blind, thinking banning cryptocurrency dealing with banks was the solution.

Now that their eyes have opened a little, they still continue to handle the situation with idiocy, in my opinion. First, Binance is not registered in the country as proven in the link below:

https://nairametrics.com/2023/06/18/binance-ceo-declares-binance-nigeria-limited-a-scam-entity/?amp=1

How can a company that is not registered in your country pay tax to you? I just don't understand. It is the government that should have forced Binance to do that. But that is if they have the valid means to do that, just like the US did. As I write, many companies are dealing with Nigerians and a huge amount of money is flowing to them. But because they never registered with Nigeria, the government can't even dare to make them accountable. Why is Binance's case different even when they are not answerable to you? If at all they would start paying, the tax payment may only start immediately after they cooperate with the country and get registered, and not for years of no registration/cooperation. Those times can only be termed a free gift to Binance due to the ignorance of the Nigerian government. Not to mention this time the exchange has totally stopped the NGN dealings.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/business/674540-binance-discontinues-naira-services.html

For their information, Binance is an exchange, just like a broker, and to date, I am dealing with many brokers that have no presence in Nigeria just like many other Nigerians. Has the Nigerian government asked any of them for tax, do they even have the right when they do not register in the country? The worst is to ban your citizens from dealing with them, and I wonder how many opportunities you would give the citizens by doing that to many companies in the world.

Some may say that Binance transacted with NGN, fine, that's true, but in my understanding, the service was never directly, but through a third party. If at all anyone would pay the taxes for those transactions, it would be the third party company which I believe is registered with the country for it to deliver such a service that passes through Nigerian banks. As for the P2P service, we all know that it is platform-based and a service that has to do with person-to-person as though we do normal transactions in the country, so it doesn't count here.

For these, I believe the Nigerian government through FIRS can never win Binance in this case in a fair court. I don't know how they would serve Binance because I have not seen the notice of service and I wonder where they will serve the company that is not registered in the country, and with no headquarters.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/binance-worlds-top-crypto-exchange-center-us-investigations-2023-03-27/

Does Nigeria even have the legal jurisdiction's right to serve Binance that is not registered with the country simply because the citizens patronise it?

Well, this is my view, I would love to hear from you guys.

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[Charles-Tim]

Our government are fxxlish. Instead to overlook it and make all these exchanges to have offices in Nigeria and tax them appropriately. Although, Binance do not have office in Nigeria, but I do not know much about regulations and international law. I do not know what can happen in court. But it will be better if Nigeria take the case to international court instead of Nigeria court because Binance is not registered in Nigeria. You can see how our government are not wise, see the taxes they are losing, but instead, they prefer not I go the right way.

[promise444c5]

Our government are fxxlish. Instead to overlook it and make all these exchanges to have offices in Nigeria and tax them appropriately. Although, Binance do not have office in Nigeria, but I do not know much about regulations and international law. I do not know what can happen in court. But it will be better if Nigeria take the case to international court instead of Nigeria court because Binance is not registered in Nigeria. You can see how our government are not wise, see the taxes they are losing, but instead, they prefer not I go the right way.

They aren't wise in the sense of manipulations,taking a matter wey be international  nationally  , it  seem they are only after the money  and with this they are taking horrible decisions.
Just like @Charles-Tim said they should think far beyond what they are to gain now rather how to promote and gain more, fine Binace is to blame for not being  registered under Nigeria but we ought to look at things from other  ange, there are many a lot of ways to tackle this without getting both side affected.

[Uhwuchukwu53]

Our government are fxxlish. Instead to overlook it and make all these exchanges to have offices in Nigeria and tax them appropriately. Although, Binance do not have office in Nigeria, but I do not know much about regulations and international law. I do not know what can happen in court. But it will be better if Nigeria take the case to international court instead of Nigeria court because Binance is not registered in Nigeria. You can see how our government are not wise, see the taxes they are losing, but instead, they prefer not I go the right way.

All you said is very correct, hard it been our government is working together and it purpose is to bring good development to the citizens but the reserve is the case as some persons are behind the move as at today news I l hard one of the arrested biance official escape from Nigeria custody, it tell how loose our government is and the case if this will die I an not in support of their arrest but they would have try and make them build office here for more development for the nation.

[sokani]

Does Nigeria even have the legal jurisdiction's right to serve Binance that is not registered with the country simply because the citizens patronise it?

Well, this is my view, I would love to hear from you guys.

You raised a very valid point, how can Nigerian government ask Binance to pay tax when it has no physical structure and it's not registered in the country. It doesn't make sense, I'm sure Nigerian government knows this, and if they were to take the case to the international court, they'd lose. So all they can do is to use the national court to bully Binance with the hope of getting the list of Nigerian traders.

As it stands, Binance is adamant, the clock is ticking, pressure is mounting, and the government has just lost one of its bargaining chips. I think the whole saga will end with the government releasing the detainee and asking Binance to register in the country.

[Manlikefrank1]

https://punchng.com/fg-files-tax-evasion-charges-against-binance

Pardon me for saying I've known the Nigerian government to be clueless and forceful, but with no good results to back it up. They rather act before thinking, perhaps their brains are under their feet. Because their policies and resolves in situations are likened to using the medicine for headaches to cure stomach aches. I just don't know how we got here.

It's no news that the Nigerian government has been trying to punish Binance for their own ignorance. I am not a Binance fan due to their many ignoble acts, yet the Nigerian government should have applied wisdom to the whole situation. From the beginning even before we got here, I've always held the stance that the Nigerian government should make Binance and the likes accountable by forcing them to be duly registered and regulated. By that, the government can gain more oversight (security and accountability) and also get the taxes due for the country. This would have been a win-win for the government, but they are just blind, thinking banning cryptocurrency dealing with banks was the solution.

Now that their eyes have opened a little, they still continue to handle the situation with idiocy, in my opinion. First, Binance is not registered in the country as proven in the link below:

https://nairametrics.com/2023/06/18/binance-ceo-declares-binance-nigeria-limited-a-scam-entity/?amp=1

How can a company that is not registered in your country pay tax to you? I just don't understand. It is the government that should have forced Binance to do that. But that is if they have the valid means to do that, just like the US did. As I write, many companies are dealing with Nigerians and a huge amount of money is flowing to them. But because they never registered with Nigeria, the government can't even dare to make them accountable. Why is Binance's case different even when they are not answerable to you? If at all they would start paying, the tax payment may only start immediately after they cooperate with the country and get registered, and not for years of no registration/cooperation. Those times can only be termed a free gift to Binance due to the ignorance of the Nigerian government. Not to mention this time the exchange has totally stopped the NGN dealings.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/business/674540-binance-discontinues-naira-services.html

For their information, Binance is an exchange, just like a broker, and to date, I am dealing with many brokers that have no presence in Nigeria just like many other Nigerians. Has the Nigerian government asked any of them for tax, do they even have the right when they do not register in the country? The worst is to ban your citizens from dealing with them, and I wonder how many opportunities you would give the citizens by doing that to many companies in the world.

Some may say that Binance transacted with NGN, fine, that's true, but in my understanding, the service was never directly, but through a third party. If at all anyone would pay the taxes for those transactions, it would be the third party company which I believe is registered with the country for it to deliver such a service that passes through Nigerian banks. As for the P2P service, we all know that it is platform-based and a service that has to do with person-to-person as though we do normal transactions in the country, so it doesn't count here.

For these, I believe the Nigerian government through FIRS can never win Binance in this case in a fair court. I don't know how they would serve Binance because I have not seen the notice of service and I wonder where they will serve the company that is not registered in the country, and with no headquarters.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/binance-worlds-top-crypto-exchange-center-us-investigations-2023-03-27/

Does Nigeria even have the legal jurisdiction's right to serve Binance that is not registered with the country simply because the citizens patronise it?

Well, this is my view, I would love to hear from you guys.

Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange platform, and the success or profitability of investing in any cryptocurrency, including Nigeria's, depends on various factors such as market conditions, government regulations, economic stability, and the performance of the cryptocurrency itself. It is important to conduct thorough research, seek advice from financial professionals, and make informed decisions when it comes to investments.Nigeria can’t win binance because there are not cause of Nigeria inflation on dollars in the economy

[EarnOnVictor]

Our government are fxxlish. Instead to overlook it and make all these exchanges to have offices in Nigeria and tax them appropriately. Although, Binance do not have office in Nigeria, but I do not know much about regulations and international law. I do not know what can happen in court. But it will be better if Nigeria take the case to international court instead of Nigeria court because Binance is not registered in Nigeria. You can see how our government are not wise, see the taxes they are losing, but instead, they prefer not I go the right way.

I'm concerned about those who are advising the Nigerian government, their approach is so unspeakable. I read an article regarding this in the local newspaper by a columnist (https://punchng.com/binance-escapee-and-nigerian-gragra) where she tagged the Nigerian government as insensitive to the case but exhibiting gragra (headstrong). That's a communist who is even neutral about the whole episode. I wonder why the Nigerian government can't find at least a good head among them who would advise them rightly. Binance is not the only exchange or company that Nigerians are transacting with, we have thousands of them, so why this much muscle flexing?

Just like you said, they can take them to an international court or the court of proper jurisdiction that Binance can be answerable to if they are not cooperating. But with what I read before this escalation, Binance was cooperating and that was why they sent two of their top officials to Nigeria, but the government rather abducted them. Abduction is the right word I can use because it is barbaric.

Another thing the government can do is to stop all Nigerians from dealing with them, just like what Philipines is doing now. I believe many for sentiment will cooperate with the government. Because, I for one, will not allow Binance to gain on me and derive my country from getting her taxes. But all of these can happen only if the Nigerian government is wise in dealing with the situation.

Does Nigeria even have the legal jurisdiction's right to serve Binance that is not registered with the country simply because the citizens patronise it?

Well, this is my view, I would love to hear from you guys.

You raised a very valid point, how can Nigerian government ask Binance to pay tax when it has no physical structure and it's not registered in the country. It doesn't make sense, I'm sure Nigerian government knows this, and if they were to take the case to the international court, they'd lose. So all they can do is to use the national court to bully Binance with the hope of getting the list of Nigerian traders.

As it stands, Binance is adamant, the clock is ticking, pressure is mounting, and the government has just lost one of its bargaining chips. I think the whole saga will end with the government releasing the detainee and asking Binance to register in the country.

I doubt if they know, my friend, because if they know but still pursue this hopeless quest and still wasting national resources to get it done, then they are the wicked. And of course, in the international court, they will surely lose the case of tax evasion, but for further cooperation with the government going forward where they will be mandated to register, make them accountable and start accruing taxes for the government, yes, they can win. But certainly not with this useless approach that would yield nothing.

Well, if Binance is now adamant, you should know it's for obvious reasons. They are being harassed, no responsible government will do that. This time the company has even stopped NGN transactions, they are basically global and not Nigeria, so the government has missed out entirely.

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

Does Nigeria even have the legal jurisdiction's right to serve Binance that is not registered with the country simply because the citizens patronise it?

Well, this is my view, I would love to hear from you guys.

I am very much sure that the Nigerian government has zero percent chance of winning Binance in this case, most especially now that the 2 Binance executives (i.e from U.S.A) who were said to have been arrested have already escaped from custody, and probably may have left the country.
However, I think the news published below by Binance Nigeria about how they were able to move over $26 billion worth of untraceable funds in 2023 most have been the major reason which ignited our Nigerian government into wanting to have a share in that revenue, and as such been setting trap and planning on how to accuse Binance without going the right and legal way about registration and regulation. But one thing certain is that Binance will be very glad to enlist our Nigerian NGN back to it's trading pair, only if our government willing to draft a favourable policy for it's business, as Nigeria has been known to be the biggest crypto market in the entire world.

[Smartvirus]

You’ve made certain postulates that I very much agree with as to how the nation have been handled with much oversight over what is by far a very sensitive aspect to business and revenue generation in the nation. Are they going to claim not to have Ben aware or don’t have the means to go about getting the activities of exchanges in the likes of Binance registered and regulated in the nation? No, they just can’t. The issue has always been as usual for them, sharing funds rather than using due process.

I just hope Binance doesn’t bend but, follow the proceedings legally till they learn on how to handle these situations upon discovery of a new functional company in the nation. It’s a teaching moment, let them learn.

[nelson4lov]

Personally, I think the Nigerian government is playing a losing game all in the pursuit of looking an entity to point fingers at. Binance presented them a unique opportunity to have someone to blame and they're making the most of it. Someone should please correct me If I'm wrong but if you make no money, you shouldn't have to pay tax. And as far as I remember, binance P2p service didn't charge a fee. They did in the early days but scrapped it off shortly. Nigerian government had successfully used the Binance saga to drive the price of NGN/USD down as much as possible but they shouldn't push their limits because even the US requested for only $4.6B whereas the Nigerian government is demanding for $10B. That's almost 90% of binance revenue for 2023. They should let the binance thing go and not push their luck.

[Justbillywitt]

The Nigerian government cannot win Binance. The case against Binance no go fit hold water, because you no go tax a company that's not a registered entity in your country. The federal government should be hiding in shame for allowing a big company like Binance carrying out their business in this country without being registered. That's a professional negligence, so I dey wonder on what criteria them dey say Binance evade taxes. My conviction is that crypto currency has come to stay in this country no matter what the government do. Binance will win the federal government.

[Briankimp1]

Personally I believe the Nigerian government can’t win Binance, simply because there’s no case to start with.
I’m no lawyer but from simple common sense you’d understand that before you can say someone has actually gone against the law of a land he or she must first live by such laws.

The so called Binance is not a Nigerian company neither do they have an office in the country so how do you simply just wake up one day and sue them to a Nigerian court, This only shows how incompetent our government officials are searching for a needle in a haystack pointless and clueless on how to go about their duties.

[Doan9269]

Does Nigeria even have the legal jurisdiction's right to serve Binance that is not registered with the country simply because the citizens patronise it?

Yes, they have the right and such is part of what prompted them to place the ban they just did on accessing their platform, but they cant mandate the closure of users account with Binance or force them on releasing their KYC for them.

Let me assume that the Nigerian government are just waking up from their long time slumber, they intend to incentivize from binance and task them on every Nigerian users on their platform, and they shouldn't have taken such route used, secondly, Nigeria is not the only country to first ban the use of Binance exchange, so many other countries have done same in other for them to be able to tax their users if they agree on terms and conditions with binance or rather create their own exchange or award such to other company to operate and they receive tax from them, Nigerian government could have legally and officially dealt with the issue by communicating Binance before taking any of their actions against them.

[Hewlet]

What do you expect from leaders that are just after making money and don't want to follow key fundamentals before making any decision? I'm sure thier attack on binance is merely centered at shifting responsibility from thier head into someone else's head since they know that an average man on the street that doesn't know much about certain regulations could think the government is doing any good thing and since the public already frawns at internet Fraud Stars who they always painted as the primary user of binance, they are just looking for cheap sympathy and not looking for ways to solve tye real economic problem that has bedevilled the nation.

If binance want to take this case seriously, it obvious Nigeria government can't stand them and they already know it that's why after those initial show of they will go back to thier trenches and remain mute. Is binance the only foreign company that's operating in Nigeria without any licence of any sort? Their are loads of online gambling sites and digital marketing platforms that has Nigerian as a major users and they don't pay shit to any government and they've been working for years.

One of our major issue is that we don't even want to accept that we aren't getting many things right and that we need young minds in key sectors that involves technology. The world has gone digital and since you know that binance hasn't done more harm than good, wouldn't it be best to just woro out ways to have an amekable discussion with them on how the federal government can possibly partner with then to curtailing certain exceces that might have become an issue regarding thier operation in the country? E de paine say we no de always see better things from our leaders but na back to back disgrace and show of incompetence we de see everyday.

[Mate2237]

Nigerian government can only win this case if only they use the law and not from mere saying that Binance was manipulating the exchange market. The problem we have is corruption and because of the corruption the law is abandoned and everyone plus the external companies are also using the Nigerian government head. If really the government was really using the policy well all dis dramas for no happened because once has Binance enter the country dey go spelled out everything to them and once dem try it disobey di law of the land omen dem go hear am by has Binance came all the law enforcement agencies collect money from dem so the exchange come dey do things anyhow.

Me di only offence wey I know about dis case na di escaped Binance official naim go spell everything for them.

[Cryptomultiplier]

https://punchng.com/fg-files-tax-evasion-charges-against-binance


https://www.reuters.com/technology/binance-worlds-top-crypto-exchange-center-us-investigations-2023-03-27/

Does Nigeria even have the legal jurisdiction's right to serve Binance that is not registered with the country simply because the citizens patronise it?

Well, this is my view, I would love to hear from you guys.

As lengthy as this post could be, every point made is the exact situation we face and we can do nothing but fold our hands, and watch how it plays out.
As long as one can still transact as per trade and earn and withdraw and even invest using any good exchange including Binance,  the issue I see Is just a case of the Naija government seeking to control what they see as a big money market.

Perhaps crypto currency and Blockchain is the next oil boom we may be looking forward to soonest. Who knows?

Finally, Binance may have to concede and pay the fine as well as become a regulated business in this country if they intend to make profit and dominate the Naija crypto currency space for a long time.