Greetings!
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The issue of taxation has been in existence for quite a long time. Let me even say that taxation has been right from the past as far as we are concerned. Just last week when I was going through the scripture, I saw a place where the tax collector in the time of Jesus asked him for money, and he performed a miracle by taking the money from the mouth of the fish and pay them, it's there he told his disciple to give unto caesar what is caesar's and unto God what belong to God.
So, with this, we can see that the collection of tax or taxes has been from the ages, but the only thing is that, the collection varies from one country to the other and another thing is that, there's been an improvement over the years as to how tax is to be collected. The way it's collected in the analog age can't be compared to the way it's being collected in this digital age.
But one thing that is general about tax collection is that it's the collection of revenue from the people by the government to finance or to fund public goods and services. This aspect of government policies is very crucial in bringing development to the society.
Now, talking about taxation or tax collection in my country Nigeria, it's somehow confusing to know the taxation method or mode of collecting tax in my country and this is because it's not easily known if one is paying it or not.
In my country, it's only the big business owners or civil servant that can say it loud and clear that are paying tax and this is because as for the civil servant, there's a stipulated and calculated percentage that is always deducted from their salary at the month end when their salary are to be paid by the government.
Also, the big business owners that are registered with the corporate affairs commission, an agency of government that oversees the registration of businesses in Nigeria, also pay their tax and this is because the government always looks out for them through the state revenue collection agencies or the federal inland revenue service. So, those are the two sets of people that think or know that they are paying taxes in my country.
Though, others are also paying tax in Nigeria. Others like the shop owners and the petty traders are also paying their taxes in Nigeria, but the only thing is that, they don't really know they are paying tax due to the mode of collection. Take for instance at my place there's a market located very close to my house and whenever it's the market day, the local revenue collectors always come around to collect money from both the shop owners and those who rent out spaces at the market. So directly or indirectly, they are also paying their taxes, but if asked if they are paying tax, their response would be NO and this may be as a result of their level of literacy.
What of the bus drivers? These sets of people also pay their taxes. They pay it after loading at the park and via the yearly hackney permit stickers they used on their vehicles. Even the license due or renewal fee is another way of them paying taxes, but they may not actually know.
So, in my country, everybody who is of taxation age pays tax. But the question is, are the governments at all levels making judicious.use of the taxes collected from the people? The answer is a CAPITAL NO. Though, some of them are trying, but majority of those our administrators are not making use of the money as it supposed to be. What I personally know about payment and utilization of tax is to use it in funding public goods and services, but this is not actually so in my country as we still have bad roads, no good public infrastructure, electricity supply is zero and a whole lot of things that are in poor state.
The reason for not making used of the money collected as tax is because of the misappropriation of funds and embezzlement on the part of our leaders in this country and this can be seen in the ways they are living large on our commonwealth and resources, even those people that are assigned to collect the money will not even be sincere with their remittances. That has always been the practice in this part of the world.
Not long ago, the president presented a bill to the National Assembly on tax reform, all we now hoped for is that they will all be sincere with the reformation of our tax and revenue generating sector so as for all to enjoy the dividend of democracy and also for the taxpayers money to count and bring meaningful impact to all.
This is my entry to week 160, Edition 03 of the weekly Featured contest in the Hive Learners community.
Thanks for reading.
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Taxation is something that started since time immemorial, it has been in existence since the time of old..
Yes ooo