CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

The desire to uplift one’s society is the first desire of every patriotic citizen. Tax payment is the demonstration of such a desire. The payment of tax is a civic duty and an imposed contribution by government on their subjects and companies to enable her finance or run public utilities and perform other social responsibilities. Taxes, thus, constitute the principal source of government revenue (Kaibel and Nwokah, 2009).

However, one of the greatest problems facing Nigeria tax system is the problem of tax evasion and tax avoidance. While tax evasion is the willful and deliberate violation of the tax law in order to escape payment of tax which is unquestionably imposed by the law of the tax jurisdiction, tax avoidance is the means by which taxpayer seeks to reduce or remove altogether his liability to tax without actually breaking the law. These “Twin devils” have created a great gulf between actual and potential revenue (Kaibel and Nwokah, 2009).

The tax administrations in Nigeria are weak, corrupt and non-transparent (kiabel, 2009). This inefficiency reflects on the mix of taxes and the faulty design in their structure and in there operational systems (Kiabel, 2009). The tax administration is also affected by policies relating the salary, the attitude, the reward and the punishment system of personnel. The tax administration in Nigeria is driven by detailed revenue targets not by the tax laws and accounting records. The tax officials are allowed to earn money and still meet their revenue targets. Many things are done through negotiation rather than basis of information processing (chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria).

In addition, low tax compliance is a serious issue in Nigeria, limiting the capacity of the government to raise revenue for development purposes. It is commonly acknowledged that many factors contribute to this weakness such as corruption, weak legal system, high marginal tax rate, paucity of adequate information, accounting system and ineffective tax administration (chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria Website). However, it has never been easy to persuade tax payers to comply with requirement of a tax system.

Furthermore, taxpayer tends to have low level of literacy, low tax morale  and negative attitude towards government. (UNSW Law Research paper no 2009-17). It is therefore felt that personal income taxation in Nigeria requires radical handling to ensure that a large chunk of the taxable population does not escape tax. An effective tax system, aside from maximizing revenue for development is expected to be well structured and managed with a feeling of common purpose, joint responsibility or obligation amongst the taxable person in a country.

From the foregoing, the future prospects of the study can be established. A key component of any tax system is the manner in which it is administered.  No tax is better than its administration, so tax administration matters a lot. An essential of objective tax administration is to ensure the maximum possible compliance by tax payers of income.

In summary therefore, according to Chris and Elizabeth (2001) tax has three basic features namely; a compulsory levy imposed by government, or local authority, for public purpose and to encourage social justice. A tax according to Ayua (1996) is not a voluntary payment but a compulsory pecuniary burden placed on taxpayers for the benefit of the society. 

Generally, taxation can be described as a form of levy imposed on all residents living and non-residents doing business within a tax jurisdiction. It is a civic and patriotic responsibility of citizens to pay taxes imposed which also come to the government as income or revenue yielding device to finance the provisions of socio-economic and infrastructural amenities and also to enhance industrial efficiency.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Over the years, the assessment and collection of personal income tax from taxable individuals has been difficult in the various states in Nigeria. There is apathy not only on the part of the educated but also the uneducated (Kiabel and Nwokah, 2009). The illiterates refuse to pay tax  because they are unaware of the purpose of taxation and therefore regard the tax collector or a tax officer as an instrument of oppression; the rich ones refuse because they are not encouraged, not only by the government which wastes tax payers’ money on white elephant projects, but also the tax officials who live above their means (Kiabel, 2009).

The Nigerian tax system also lacks competent and honest administrators. The problem of tax avoidance and evasion has reached an alarming proportion. The need to improve the administration of our tax system cannot be over emphasized.

1.3 Research Questions

In relation to the problems identified the following questions are asked:

i. Why has there been low revenue from personal income tax?

ii. What are the problems or difficulties encountered by the tax administrators?

iii. What are the possible prospects for personal income tax in Nigeria? 

1.4 Objectives of the Study

The broad objective of the study is to examine personal income tax in Nigeria, However, the specific objectives of the study are:

i. To examine the performance and contribution of personal income to Nigeria revenue.

ii. To evaluate the problems associated with personal income tax administration.

iii. To assess the prospects of personal income tax in Nigeria.

1.5 Statement of Hypotheses

The hypotheses for the study are stated here and they are stated in null forms

Hypothesis one 

H0: Personal income does not contribute significantly to Nigeria revenue. 

Hypothesis two

H0: There are no problems associated with personal income tax administration in Nigeria.

Hypothesis three

H0:There are no prospects for personal income tax in Nigeria.

1.6 Justification for the Study

Although several research works have been carried out on the problems of personal income tax administration in Nigeria but most have not researched on the performance and contribution of personal income tax to the Nigeria revenue profile. This study will broaden this area of research and lay more emphasis on problems and laws revolving around facing personal income tax administration in Nigeria. The possible prospects of personal income tax in Nigeria will also be thoroughly examined and investigate the techniques that are involved in the administration of personal income tax in Nigeria which has been neglected by past researchers.

1.7 Scope of the Study

The population of this study is large, but due to certain factors such as time, financial and academic constraint, this research work will concentrate only on the staff of Kwara state board of internal revenue, Ilorin and other eligible tax payers within Ilorin metropolis. 

1.8 Definition of Terms

Tax: A tax can be defined as a compulsory levy imposed by public authority on incomes, consumption, and production of goods and services (Ojo, 2009).

Basis period: This refers to the accounting period of a business where income is assessable to tax in the year of assessment (Ojo, 2009).

Year of Assessment (YOA): This is the period from January 1st to 31st December of the same year. It is the reference year which tax is paid (Ojo, 2009).

Earned Income: This refers to the income derived by an individual from a trade, business, vocation, or employment as well as incomes derived from a previous employment by a way of pension (Ojo, 2009).

Assessment: This refers to the procedure by which tax payable by taxable person or company is computed (Ojo, 2009).

Best of judgment: This is a form of assessment made by relevant tax authority where it occurs that a tax payer has not filed his return for a particular year of assessment, or a taxable person is not registered for tax purpose, and it is in the opinion of the inspector of taxes that the individual income is chargeable to tax for that year of assessment (Ojo, 2009).

Tax avoidance: This is considered as a way of identifying the loopholes in the tax laws and then take advantages of such loopholes to reduce the tax payable (Ojo, 2009).

Tax evasion: This is a deliberate act on the part of the tax payer not to pay tax due (Ojo, 2009)

Self assessment: This is the process whereby tax payers are assessing themselves and filing their returns to the tax authority (Ojo, 2009).

Pay as you earn: This means that tax is deducted from the income of an employee at source. The tax deducted is then remitted to the relevant tax authority on a monthly basis (Ojo, 2009).

1.9 Plan of the Study

To ensure orderliness of the study, the plan of the study was carried out and reported chronologically, under five chapters. Chapter one which is the introduction to the study provided the background to the study, statement of the problem, research questions, justification for the study, objectives of the study, hypothesis of the study, scope of the study, definition and terms and plan of the study. The second chapter contained the review of relevant literatures.  The research methodology is presented in the third chapter and it included headings such as research design, population of the study, sampling techniques, method of data collection and methods of data analysis. The fourth chapter contained the data presentation analysis and discussion of result obtained from the field survey. Chapter five covers the summary, conclusions and recommendations.