Ogun targets additional 1m in new tax net

The Ogun government said on Monday that it planned to capture additional one million people in its new tax net.

The Chairman of Ogun Internal Revenue Service (OGIRS), Mr Adekunle Adeosun, made the disclosure during a tax -walk to some markets in Ijebu-Ode‎.

Adeosun said that the state hoped to raise additional N40 billion from the informal sector of the economy through personal income tax.

He added that the state had also concluded plans to recover lost revenue in terms of Pay-as-You-Earn (PAYE) erroneously paid to neighbouring states like Oyo and Lagos.

“The step is in line with the Tax Residency Rule which requires workers to remit their taxes to states of residence and not where they work,’’ he said.

Adeosun, who directed that the tax walk should hold every Thursday, said the initiative followed the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) ‎recently launched by the Federal Government.

“We plan to register a minimum of one million ‎ new tax payers with a minimum tax of N 3,100 to enable us raise our IGR by N40 billion.

“We plan to focus on the informal sector and we discovered on direct assessment that each of them in the informal sector can pay tax of at least N5 million,” he said.