By Mobolaji Egbewunmi
Tax payment is a statutory responsibility as entrenched in section 24 of the Nigerian 1999 constitution as amended. That section states that everybody who earns an income must declare the same to the authority and that this declaration must be honest. That is why tax payment is considered a civic responsibility.
It is also a moral responsibility because we are morally bound to pay taxes so that the government can have the required resources to address identified gaps in infrastructural development, and also deliver on its social responsibilities.
Holly Sklar said, “Taxes and levies are how the government pools resources for public health safety, security, education, infrastructure, research, intervention programs, and all social services”.
Many do not know that when they default, the government can take them to court and upon conviction, can be criminally liable or forfeit their properties.
Also, the government has the right to put a lien on your business as well as sanction you for community service and so on. You may even be denied access to some government services.
It is important to stress that tax is a type of revenue, while revenue is an income that comes to the government be it through Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), federal transfers, capital gains, sales of assets, rents, leases, or grants and loans.
So far there is an income in monetary terms, to offset your budgetary allocation, it is revenue. The tax falls under IGR, which includes Pay As You Earn (PAYE).
Other revenues are IGR in nature but not taxes. This includes Motor Vehicle License, Building Permit, Land Title approval, and the Land Use Charge (LUC) among others. The LUC is a combination of your tenement rate, neighbourhood improvement levy, and ground rent.
But then, one must stress that statutorily, if you do not earn an income and if you are a pensioner, aged and you are not into making any form of income; you are not entitled to pay tax.
Aged pensioners are exempted from some levies and charges. For instance, an aged landlord will not pay for LUC provided the said property is not used for commercial or rental purposes.
But if a retiree receives rental income from any property he has to pay the LUC on the property.
Being the nation’s pacesetter, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu recently unveiled the Lagos Revenue Portal (LRP) as a way to make payment of taxes seamless in the state.
The LRP is a revenue collection application in the simplest form. The government understands the importance of “ease-of-doing -business” and wants to simplify the way citizens get these bills.
Woodrow Wilson, the 28th US President, said “Simplification of the taxes and levies has become an immediate necessity”. LRP is, thus, a deliberate platform to intentionally improve the experience of payers in Lagos State.
To put the implementation of LRP in proper context, if, for instance, you have a Land Use Charge (LUC) Bill to pay alongside other bills like LAWMA, LASEPA, Water Corporation, Vehicle Licensing, etc., instead of moving from one point to the other on a queue waiting for your bills, you will rather stay in the comfort of your office or home, log onto LRP and access your bills for all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) with a single-payer ID.
This is possible because every bill that is generated by all MDAs is preloaded on LRP. So, you can now go independently to the revenue portal, as it offers a self-service option. You can go into the revenue portal to view your bills on a page and you can click and make payments to any of the revenue-generating agencies that have generated bills for you as a payer.
It is a one-stop shop for revenue collection, especially for those in the non-tax category. The LRP is designed to make payment of taxes easy for everyone.
It is simple, available, and confidential. It has a level of integrity in the course of deployment and it allows you to view your bills in real-time, download your payment history, download your remittance statement, and validate your payment so that you do not pay into the wrong hands.
Part of the feedback before now is that payers sometimes cannot easily get their receipts. So, LRP has finally come as a succour to put a stop to all these challenges.
An email address, revenueoffice@lagosstate.gov.ng, and lrp@lagosstate.gov.ng, where enquiries could be swiftly responded to have been created as part of efforts to ensure prospective taxpayers enjoy a seamless experience.
Besides the LRP, the government has been deploying technology in diverse ways to ease the payment of taxes and ultimately to improve the ease of doing business.
For instance, there is e-tax, the end-to-end application being currently used by the Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS). It is a one-stop shop for tax administration.
The role that e-tax is playing to the LIRS is what LRP will be playing to non-tax revenue. LRP will take the major stage for non-tax revenue.
There is also an application called ‘Madam Shikini’, which is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot. It is about to be launched. It is an application where Lagosians can interact with a bot any time of the day.
Despite all these efforts, there are still noticeable gaps and a need for improvement. Consequently, the government is working very hard on continuous improvements to achieve the global status of our dream. It may not be perfect yet, but work is ongoing towards ensuring improved compliance. It is a work in progress.
On the issue of multiple taxation, although many are of the view that residents experience this, it needs, nonetheless to be emphasized that this is merely a perception issue. It is a misconception.
We must reference the Act which is called the Taxes and Levies (Approved List for Collection) Act. The act is centred on what every tier of government can collect; it is a federal government law. It means that all revenue being collected in Lagos today is one way or the other legislated.
I must give a practical example of how people perceive multiple taxation. Let us use, for instance, a barbing shop in a place like Ikeja as an example. Because the local government is empowered by that act to collect lock-up shop permits and radio licenses; local government consultants or their agents will approach the barber to pay for the permit and radio license. If the same barber wants to advertise his trade, he will be required to put out signage that requires the approval of the Lagos State Signages and Advertising Agency (LASAA).
So, he will pay LASAA, as he experiences growth in his trade, he will employ five or more stylists, and he is expected to pay the Lagos Inland Revenue Service (LIRS) for their PAYE, based on the minimum wage rule. But if he pays below the minimum wage, he is not expected to pay LIRS. Then, LAWMA comes for his waste, and if he has a car, he is required to renew his vehicle license.
That is just a simple scenario. It’s a circle that has legal backing. So, it is not multiple taxation. What we can clamour for is the harmonization and simplification of taxation.
To conclude: it is important to urge Lagos residents to keep performing their civic responsibilities. Tax compliance is one of such. It is their taxes that make the difference in the state. Without it, there will be no development.
•Egbewunmi is of the Ministry of Information & Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.
