The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on Thursday hinted that it would soon commence the review of all tax laws in the country in order to simplify the legislations and achieve a high degree of voluntary compliance by taxpayers.
This is even as it confirmed that a national taxpayers database had been created under the Joint Tax Board (JTB) in furtherance of the tax authorities sustained efforts to enhance voluntary compliance and tax administration in the country.
The Executive Chairman of FIRS, Mr. Tunde Fowler, who made these disclosures in Lagos while delivering a keynote address at a stakeholders meeting on ‘Tax Administration and National Revenue’, assured also that Joint Tax Board (JTB) was determined to improve services to taxpayers at all levels.
The stakeholders’ meeting was aimed at charting the way forward in the country’s tax administration and the challenges hindering a robust tax regime.
According to him, a fully automated consolidated Taxpayer Identification Number database has been created by the JTB.
Fowler therefore urged taxpayers and stakeholders in the nation’s tax administration space to support tax authorities in the interest of national development.
He clarified: “Studies, however, show that the extent to which an economy is able to grow sustainably and develop depends to a large extent on its ability to generate tax revenue to finance its expenditure and the efficiency of its tax system.
“The questions that arise from these simple statements include how to identify areas of non-compliance; how to measure the level of non-compliance; and how to address non-compliance”, the tax expert added.
In addition, he explained that FIRS had put in place various strategies to curtail non-compliance to improve tax revenue collection on a sustainable basis, pointing out that well-designed taxpayer services, education programmes, and creative measures can facilitate self-assessment and compliance.
