26th April, 2024
The Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria says for the country to attract foreign direct investment its tax system has to be reformed.
Saying this was the Chairman of Ikeja District Society of CITN, Mr Abiodun Oke
He said: “We desire to have an environment where they would be able to work and bring funds to the country. Recently, we have been talking about the foreign direct investment; it won’t come if we don’t have a standard tax system”.
Oke called for the updating of the tax laws as well as the addressing the issue of multiple taxation.
He said: “Look at laws because they would always tell you what is in the law. And so if the law is archaic, it is no longer up-to-date. We need to find a way to bring them on board”.
He also said: “So, multiple taxation has always been there but now our professionals in the tax space have been called upon to sanitise it, and I am sure something good would come out in the near future”
He called for digitisation to foster efficiency in the tax system.
He said: “People don’t pay tax here in Nigeria. There are small businesses that do not pay taxes. A businessman can do billions of naira business in a year and would come and pay personal income tax, maybe because the person runs an enterprise and because he is not a limited company.
“But when such personal transactions are captured digitally, the person can be monitored. So the era of digital technology is what we want to leverage”.