Omolabake Fasogbon
The Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, CITN, has said that it would be addressing gaps affecting tax growth at its 24th International Tax Conference holding in Abuja
The conference is themed, “Global Disruption, Taxation and Digitalisation: Implications for Socio-Economics Development.”
Speaking ahead of the conference in Lagos, President of the institute, Adesina Adedayo said huge gaps in data, accountability and governance are limiting Nigerian tax system.
He stressed the need for proper identification of tax payers to enhance accountability and to plug revenue leakages.
He said, “In a system like Nigeria where you have over 200 million people, these 200 million persons should not be anonymous. It is important that these people, including their base and family are known as they are the ones that constitute the tax payers. This is why we are having the data for tax initiative being championed by the Joint Tax Board. Data is very important as it is not possible that we tax people that we don’t know.”
He noted that changes in the system including governance, administration interaction should reflect in the tax system.
He said: “The benefit of the conference is to let Nigerians know that with the way economic and business models have changed, tax administration and practice must also change. Unlike before when we wait for people to have physical office before we tax them, now virtual offices are now getting so economically viable than people think.
“With the global disruption, it is clear that we do not need physical interaction anymore to make money, which has caused us to have a discussion around it and how do we do business around it. On how tax comes into all these, it comes from administration to practice. These will form our fulcrum for this year’s conference.”
