CITN bemoans low level of tax compliance in Nigeria

Records N410.9m total income in 2015
The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CITN) has bemoaned the low level of tax compliance in Nigeria, urging government to adopt measures that would enhance participation.

According to the President of the institute, Dr Olateju Somorin, there was need for government to embark on aggressive tax enlightenment campaign to boost compliance.

Somorin, who spoke during the institute’s 2015 yearly general meeting, held in Lagos recently, said: “ The level of tax compliance in Nigeria is very low.  I must confess it that I am not happy with the level of tax compliance in Nigeria. “So we need to do more in this area by way of tax education to enlighten people why they need to pay tax and those that keep the tax, they make sure they spend the tax judiciously so that those that they are calling upon to pay tax will be able to do it willingly. In the area of tax compliance, we need to do more.

Nigeria should move away from the era of tax   enforcement and move to the era of compliance. Government should be tax friendly. it is when they are tax friendly that citizen will take tax seriously . So government will do its own parts, while tax payers will do their own part,” she added.

The President explained that the institute would continue to observe developments in the Nigerian tax system. She flayed indiscriminate calls for taxes and levies by state authorities in an attempt to shore up internally generated revenue.

The President stated categorically that taxes and levies outside the harmonized list collected by the three tiers of government should be shunned to avoid prevalence of multiple taxes in the system.

Reviewing the institute’s performance, Somorin explained that despite the harsh operating environment, the membership strength has remained in upward note during the period under review.

Within the period under review, in keeping to one of the items on my agenda, we held two induction ceremonies in November 2015 and April 2016 with 1,041 and 676 inducted respectively, bringing our membership strength to 19,496to date.She also expressed the institutes resolve to make CITN a stronger brand among other professional bodies in Nigeria.

The institute recorded total income of N410.9million, representing 69 per cent growth, when compared to N242.8 million achieved in the corresponding period in 2014.The major driver of our income growth was from the surplus of the self-financing programmes that grew from N59,209,00 to N189,900,000.