The Nigerian Branch of the International Fiscal Association

We are pleased to invite you to our forthcoming webinar Conference on ‘Taxation of Digital and Space Mediated enterprises’ on 29 July 2020 at 1430. BST

We have arranged for several world leading experts from different continents to discuss the most recent trends and thinking across the globe and evaluate likely future outcomes. Speakers from Skadden Arps, IBFD and the former Head of Office for International Affairs of the Government of Colombia will be giving their views and sharing their experience from a private sector, NGO and Government perspectives respectively.  

Few people are aware of the implications of satellite delivery of services for taxation. We will explore the surprisingly long history of space /satellite issues in Africa  and also globally and their important implications for international taxation. Our speaker on this topic will be James Anderson of  Skadden Arps.

Taxation of digital enterprises is now centre stage given the recent public walkout of the US from OECD negotiations as reported in the FT . Africa, represented by  Nigeria, has its own digital tax case that is discussed all around the world.  According to the UK Guardian with the passing of UK Digital Services Tax  the future role of US  mega techs are being highlighted:

The limitations put in place by the Treasury ensure that almost all of the revenues will come from US tech companies. Only companies with £25m of revenues are covered by the tax, and the list of affected businesses includes Google, Facebook and Amazon. European digital successes such as Spotify and Monzo are excluded because they do not operate “search engines, social media services and online marketplaces”.

But  the Chinese mega techs are not far behind.  African countries are not exempt from all these issues of taxation of digital enterprises. These are not ‘future’ issues as these mega techs are already on the African soil.

Our speakers on these topics will be : Belema Obuoforibo and Natalie Quinones.

Questions we have to address are: in a world where data is the new oil,  how do we recover value for our national and continental data? How do we adapt our national taxation systems to the new world of digital enterprise? How do we encourage inter-African trade while controlling foreign mega techs (infant industry  issues) ? How do we coordinate our plans with other countries as no country wants to be seen to be  going it alone? African countries need to ally together to push for the interests of Africa. We all remember the famous quote from Tacitus  on the conquest of Britain by his father-in-law Agricola where the  British kingdoms would not unite against the Romans: ‘They fought singly and were conquered together’. How should enterprises in Africa respond to the new challenges and opportunities? What role should professional advisers play in guiding clients through this new landscape?

To be part of what promises to be a landmark discourse on Africa’s place in the international tax space and on the global impact of digital and space technologies we recommend that you register now, as places are limited.

For registration please  go to

https://ifa-nigeria.ng/index.php/events/taxation-of-space/