The Federal Inland revenue Service (FIRS) and Alaba Micro and Small Tax Office have held an inaugural tax sensitisation workshop for the Alaba-Badagry tax jurisdiction and its environs.
The event, which was themed, ‘Tax Payers Education-Voluntary compliance for improved revenue generation’ was held at the Makanujuola Aderemi Hall, Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo.
The workshop aimed to create an awareness for taxpayers in terms of tax compliance, taxpayers obligations and rights, understanding the tax types and authorities, and also to broaden the knowledge on the taxpromax concept.
The Executive Chairman Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Muhammad Nami, charged attendants of this event to pay their taxes promptly and correctly as it is a significant way to contribute to national development.
So far, according to him, “FIRS collected N6.4trillion, the highest in the history of tax collection in Nigeria. As of July 2022, we collected N5.2trillion and we are on course to surpassing the collections of 2021”. He, therefore, solicits for support and cooperation to achieve the goal.
He further explained the Taxpromax concept, a tax administration solution, which was developed in-house last year, and encouraged people to utilise it.
“This platform allows you to register, file and pay your taxes from your home and offices with very little human intervention. We encourage you to use it to file your tax returns as it is very use friendly and significantly reduces the burden and cost of compliance,” he said.
Muhammad also added that FIRS is building a secretariat at the Alaba International Market for the business community.
In the same vein, the tax controller of Alaba Micro and Small Tax Office, Cecilia Odibo, recognised that there was the need for workshops like this to aid communication between tax authorities and taxpayers.
As a tax controller, she said: “Oof the major challenges posed to revenue collection performance is absence of taxpayer’s awareness of their rights and duties to the tax authorities, and by extension to the Federal Government.”
Her administration is therefore focused on how they can play their part to generate non oil revenues that will sustain the economy of the country, hence the reason for this workshop, and according to her, many more to come.
The president of The Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), Chief Adeshina Adedayo who was well represented by the deputy president of the institute, Mr Innocent Ohagwa, said the theme of the workshop speaks volume to the current realities in Nigeria’s tax environment today. He also added that the level of compliance is still very low, and as such has been affecting the tax revenue capacity.
He sees the event as an opportunity to brainstorm and interact on issues that affects tax payers, and therefore hopes that outcome will generate new ideas and innovative strategies that will awaken tax payers’ interest that will on the long run be beneficial to Nigeria as a whole.