Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
In order to bring the informal trade sector into its tax net, the Lagos State government through the Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) has unveiled plans to come up with an electronic platform.
Chairman of the tax regulatory body in the metropolis, Mr Hamzat Subair, disclosed that with the platform will make it possible to track all taxable entities in the informal sector and have them on the LIRS database.
Represented by the Assistant Director, Informal Sector at LIRS, Mrs Tola Seriki, at a breakfast meeting organised by the Nigerian American Chamber of Commerce (NACC) tagged Tax and Revenue Generation: The Lagos State Approach on Thursday, he said it was important to bring all on board.
“The most common source of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to all countries is taxation. However, not every national government has been able to effectively exploit this great opportunity of revenue generation,” Mr Subair said.
He played down talks that most businesses and business owners pay multiple taxes, stressing that he does not believe such happens in the country. He said multiple taxes occur when a single taxable income is subjected to tax more than once either by the same tax authority or more than one tax authority.
“We do not have multiple taxes in Nigeria and by extension Lagos State. What we have is a multiplicity of the interface between taxable entities, businesses inclusive, and tax authorities,” he clarified.
He added that the state will continue to implement reforms and adoption of international best practices in tax administration which will reduce the cost of voluntary compliance, which will impact positively Nigeria’s ratings on the Ease of Paying Taxes Index, and ultimately the Ease of Doing Business Index.
On his part, the President of NACC, Mr Oluwatoyin Akomolafe, said taxation is a very important tool for national development, promotion and growth in most countries, which is also viewed as a major vehicle for the long term development of infrastructure of the state. He added that governments all over the world require revenue to support the spending needs to maintain public investment and social services.
“Though taxation may not be the most important source of revenue to the government in terms of the magnitude of revenue derivable, however, taxation is the most important source of revenue to the government, from the point of view of certainty, and consistency of taxation,” he added.
