Churches, Mosques To Start Rendering Account From January

An accounting system for churches, mosques and other not-for-profit organisations, has been designed by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) which will compel them to report their financial transactions periodically from January next year.

This indication was given by the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer, FRC, Mr. Jim Osayande Obazee, in a keynote address presented at the 2012 annual conference of the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) held in Ijebu-Ode at the weekend.
Obazee who explained that the move was to ensure that more Nigerians are dragged into the corporate tax net, added that this was also in line with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
Continuing, Obazee said: �We want to release our Statement of Accounting Standards (SAS) 32 because we want churches and charities to begin to present accounts. They just file returns to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and so long as they pay the N1000, they are home and dry. But we are saying that they must report their financial transactions in proper format.
�Also, once charity organisations engage in non-charity activities, they would have to submit those goods for taxable purposes. A country is not run by oil, but by tax. Go to the internet and you see all the branches of the Redeemed Christian Church in United Kingdom, you will see their accounts and over there, they fully disclose the amount collected as a church. But in our own, people are asking me: �Jim, do you want God to render account�.�