FG to Tax Wealthy Nigerians to Meet Revenue Target

The Federal Government plans to begin taxing wealthy Nigerians to achieve its 18 per cent tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio revenue target, Bloomberg reported Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman, of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, as saying yesterday. According to the news agency, the Federal Government aims to achieve an 18 per cent tax-to-GDP ratio within three years as part of President Bola Tinubu’s reform agenda.

He was quoted as saying: “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 per cent to help boost business. “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 per cent 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.”

Oyedele recently disclosed that the Presidential Tax Committee has no plan to increase taxes, rather the committee would “harmonise revenue collection” to help reduce the tax burden. He said: “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 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.”

President Tinubu had on August 8, inaugurated the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, which is headed by 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.