FG TO TAX WEALTHY NIGERIANS

The Federal Government has stated its plan to begin taxing wealthy Nigerians to achieve its 18% Tax-GDP ratio revenue target.

This was disclosed by Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman, of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms in a recent interview with Bloomberg.

Mr. Taiwo noted that this move is part of President Bola Tinubu’s reforms as the Federal Government aims to achieve 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.

“We will find a way to create structures and systems around what taxes can be imposed, how it can be collected, who can collect it and how it 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 government knows their income, where they are; if they haven’t been paying their taxes, if we declare an amnesty they will show up.” He said.

Mr. Taiwo recently disclosed that the Presidential Tax Committee has no plan to increase taxes, rather the committee would “harmonize revenue collection” to help reduce the tax burden.

“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 harmonizing revenue collection to reduce the burden on the 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 annual finance acts.”

It will be recalled that President Bola Tinubu had on 8^th August 2023 inaugurated the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, which is headed by Mr. Taiwo Oyedele.

The President directed the Committee to achieve its one-year mandate, which is divided into three main areas: fiscal governance, tax reforms, and growth facilitation.