“Jesus Paid Your Debts, Not Your Taxes” – FIRS Apologizes Over Offensive Easter Message

The Christian Association of Nigeria and Nigerians have received an apology from the Federal Inland Revenue Service about an Easter message that was deemed inappropriate.

Recall that a flyer that was sent on Sunday through FIRS X account said, “Jesus paid your debts, not your taxes.”

But in response to the FIRS’s Easter post, the Christian organization CAN called for a public apology, claiming that the message was disrespectful to Christianity.

Nigerians were also prompted to respond to this message.

The statement read, “Our attention has been drawn to a statement by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) about a flier posted on our social media platforms with the headline ‘Jesus paid your debts, not your taxes.’

“As a responsible government agency, we would like to say we did not put out the flier purposely to denigrate Jesus Christ or detract from the huge sacrifice He made for humanity. We are acutely aware that the essence of the Easter period is to celebrate this huge sacrifice.

“The message was our way of uniquely engaging taxpayers, to remind them of the need to prioritize payment of their taxes as a civic obligation.

“Yes, we would say the message ruffled feathers in some circles. The unintended meaning/insinuation being read into the post was not what we were out to communicate as an agency.

“Good a thing, this much is acknowledged by CAN in its statement wherein it said, ‘We recognize that the intended message may have been to creatively engage taxpayers…’ We wish to offer our unreserved apologies for this misinterpretation.

“FIRS, as a responsible agency, has no religion and will not bring down any religion or offend the sensibilities of adherents of various faiths in the country.

“Our goal is to assess, collect, and account for revenue for the wellbeing of the Federation. It is an investment in the country’s progress when citizens pay taxes. Once again, we wish to apologize to CAN and Christians who felt offended by the unintended consequence of our message on Easter Sunday”. [CONTINUE READING HERE]