Nigeria: Taxation And Justice

No nation can prosper economically without an effective and efficient tax law.
Taxation is a legal method of raising funds by the government. It has transmitted into a civic responsibility of the citizens, who often may not have any choice in its payment due to the system fund point of deduction. Taxation could be likened to a duty of the citizenry towards the government and the nation. It could also be described as levy, toll, dues or assessment placed on the citizens by law.
Justice on the other hand connotes fairness, impartiality, righteousness, evenhandedness, fair dealing, honesty, integrity. The opposite of this is injustices, unfairness, dishonesty, etc.
Every nation including Nigeria makes plans and budget for the smooth governance of the nation.
Our laws provides for a system of taxation under a specific agency called Federal Inland Revenue service. It's legal to impose and collect taxes from the citizens in whatever form and must be fairly and proportionately collected. It must be fairly distributed and higher income earners should pay more and vice versa. This is an ideal scenario and must be constitutionally made operationally so.
The law is a system of rule and principle that guides the people living within a geographical location called country.
The Nigerian experience in taxation is disgraceful and condemnable. Taxation is only properly so called in relation to public school teachers and civil servants who have taxes deducted from their salaries at source.
How much tax do we collect from the businesses operating in our nation? The law of taxation is not a bluechip area of concentration in Nigeria. Its concentration seems only at the point of salary to accommodate the PAYE system. It has evolved to adequately handle issues of taxation on the privileged many who are confronted with taxation squarely and deduction from their meager salaries.
*Points To Note In Taxation*
1. The law must make it mandatory that the basic needs of the people, especially the poor and vulnerable are addressed as a matter of priority before any taxation could be justified.
2. The law must make the collection of taxes an important and justifiable role of government. Taxes are an individual and corporation contribution to the common good. In any society, the common good should be varied of greater importance than the good of any individual, corporation or special interest group. Paying taxes, is one way individuals and corporations give something back to the society.
3. The law must make it obligatory on the nation to seek and maintain revenues sufficient to meet basic needs of all, especially the poor and vulnerable. Taxation in any form should be based on ones ability to pay. The tax law operating in Nigeria, must be reviewed to ensure that the system collects taxes according to ones ability to pay. Hence, a more progressive tax system must evolve to the extent that our contribution to the common good must reflects our blessing. Hence to whom much has been given, much should be expected. Those who make the most profit from our economic system benefit most from the structures and infrastructures that makes economic enterprise possible. Tax exemptions and tax incentives should not change the fundamental requirement that taxes should be based on one's ability to pay.
Any form of taxation that is not fair and just in the treatment of the poor and the less privileged is fundamentally defective. Taxation must exist to be used as an economic strategy to level income distribution in a society. Tax advantage should not be granted on the basis of power and politics, but on moral principle as prescribed by law. The poor should not pay a disproportionate amount of income in taxes.
Who eventually pay any given tax and who will be the ultimate sufferers, both in respect for the money paid and in relation between their income and in the cost of the commodities they have to consume. The total amount of tax paid by each individual, will comprise not only the obvious items of money paid and the goods the money has purchased, but puts more money in the pockets of other individuals.
When a new tax or increased tax is levied on goods already in the hands of manufacturers or dealers, the market value of the goods may suddenly increase by the whole amount of tax without any effort, whatever, on the part of the holder. In such a case the consumer will be the sufferer at first. Hence taxes could be levied on personnel or on production.
Taxation is in the exclusive legislative list of the government. Hence only one system of taxation can be evolved for the entire nation. This means that the nation can survive or be crippled under the weight of the tax system in operation.
The nation's economic base can be affected when tax fails to correct the imbalance between the rich and the poor.