In order to achieve the 18% Tax – GDP ratio revenue target of President Bola Tinubu’s “Renewed Hope” policy, the Federal government has initiated a plan to start taxing wealthy Nigerians
The president’s tax master and chairman of the presidential committee on fiscal policy and Tax reform, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed this in an interview with Bloomberg.
President Bola Tinubu’s administration had promised a reform with an intention of achieving an 18% Tax-to-GDP ratio within 3 years.
According to him, the plan is to;
“Make the rich pay what is fair and those who are too poor can be protected. We also envisage a reduction in the corporate income tax rate to below the current effective rate of more than 40% to help boost business.”
Mr. Taiwo went further to highlight how the committee aims to leverage technology to widen the tax net and boost revenue. He said,
“We will find a way to create structures and systems around what taxes can be imposed, how they can be collected, who can collect them, and how they should be accounted for.
“The goal is to slash the number of taxes down to single digits. We just identified the top eight, giving us 99% of the taxes, so we keep them and the rest we get rid of.
“If people know that the government knows their income, where they are, and if they haven’t been paying their taxes, if we declare an amnesty, they will show up.”
Mr. Taiwo has revealed that the Presidential Tax Committee does not intend to raise taxes; instead, their focus is on “harmonising revenue collection” to alleviate the tax burden.
According to him:“We do not intend to introduce new taxes or impose higher tax rates. Rather, our mandate is to reduce the number of taxes and levies while harmonising revenue collection to reduce the burden on people and businesses.
“The objective is to avoid taxing investment, capital, production, or poverty. We plan to review and re-enact the major tax laws in a holistic manner, thereby limiting the necessity for frequent changes through the annual finance acts.”
