By Ademola Adedoyin
When Ademola Adedoyin, Marketing Communication Specialist, Executive Producer / Editor in Chief, Energy and Business Media Nigeria, presented this paper at a one -day Capacity Building Training Programme for Media Practitioners and select Stakeholders in Nigeria’s Taxation System, last week, he argued that with good understanding, the press can help reduce the tension between tax payers and collectors
Preamble
From the topic of this presentation, three key elements, not necessarily in any particular order, are at play and they form the subject of discourse. They are: Media, FIRS and the Tax Paying Public.
It is also not difficult to deduce that what informed the choice of this topic is to reach out to the tax payer, to encourage him to discharge this important state duty, with the ultimate objective of deepening and widening tax collection.
The question to ask before going into the kernel of this paper, therefore, will be: what is tax?
According to the Oxford Dictionary, tax is a compulsory contribution to state revenue, levied by the government on workers’ income and business profits, or added to the cost of some goods, services and transactions. It now went further to add: “A strain or heavy demand”, with similarities drawn with such words as: burden, load, weight etc.
Why is Tax unattractive ?
From these definitions, some words and expressions which make tax truly unattractive are conspicuous. They include: compulsory, levied by the government, (whether that government is popular or not, whether transparent and accountable or not etc), a burden or load etc….
“Nothing is certain except death and taxes.” American Statesman, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) asserted.
Yet as revolting and as loathsome as tax may appear, its certainty is only comparable to death. Truly if man has his way, he will not want to die, just as he will not want to pay his tax.
From time immemorial, since the authorities invented tax in order to engender societal development and growth, no one enjoyed handing over that portion of their earnings to the tax collector with great pleasure.
The need for understanding between tax payers and tax managers
In fact, in the Biblical account, the tax collectors were so detested that they were categorised among the oppressors and sinners that the pharisees had to confront Jesus to wonder why he was relating with them.
Yet, tax we must pay, if we must have a society of our collective dream. In a paper titled: Role of Tax Education and Enlightenment on Tax Revenue Growth in Nigeria for Journal of Taxation and Economic Development , Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria ,Onuoha Luke, Rufus Akintoye and others established the nexus between tax revenue and sustainable economic growth.
To achieve the goal revenue generation through tax, the researchers stated that the situation requires an environment where both taxpayers and tax officials have appropriate knowledge of their roles and responsibilities.
Both sides would require adequate education and enlightenment through the media to be able to play their roles diligently. We will come back to this presently
Getting Cloer to Tax Managers
The Tax Collector Known as the Federal Inland Revenue Service , FIRS .
FIRS, through the Legal Instrument titled Fe deral Inland Revenue Service, FIRS , (Establishment) Act 2007 , has, as its core functions, accessing, collecting, remitting and accounting for the federation taxes.
It has as its Vision: “To deliver quality service to taxpayers, in partnership with other stakeholders and make Taxation the pivot of national development” While its Mission is “to operate an efficient and transparent tax system that optimizes tax revenue collection and voluntary compliance.”
Given man’s predisposition to tax payment, no one definitely envies FIRS, given its statutorily assigned national duty. Yet, the job must be done, and must be done well, if the the nation’s developmental and growth targets are to be attained.
The Nigerian Tax Paying Public, from time past, is not in any way, different from those of other countries.
Taxation in Ibadan, a Snapshot
The late 19th Century and early 20th Century Ibadan tax situation comes handy as an example.
Tax payment in Ibadan during this period became so much an issue that a Balogun of Ibadan, Balogun Ola, Son of Baale Orowusi, would rather commit suicide than to continue to witness more Ibadan young men in unending agony and the Colonial Government’s tax detention.
The issue became so unbearable and detestable that it aroused the philantropic disposition of the Ibadan Business tycon of that era, Sanusi Adebisi Idikan (1882-1938).
One day, the Business icon, Idikan, drove to the Office of Chief Tax Officer for the Ibadan Colonial Office at Mapo where he declared his intention to pay tax on behalf of every taxable adult in Ibadan. From then on, until his death, he did just that to the relief of Ibadan taxable adults.
The situation in Ibadan of that era largely reflected the situation in other parts of Nigeria, where the tax collectors and tax payers were never on the same page in the discharge of this important State duty. Research shows that many decades later, the situation may have gone worse.
Nigeria : Bad compliance record
According to a research done by the World Bank Group and PWC in the report titled “ Paying Taxes 2015: The Global Picture ,” Nigeria is ranked 3rd worst globally in the time it takes tax payers to comply, followed by Bolivia and Brazil.
In Nigeria, it takes the tax payer an average of 908 hours to comply, compared to 224 hours in Ghana, 202 hours in Kenya and 200 hours in South Africa.
The media and tax matters
It is not in dispute that the task of educating, enlightening and entertaining a large number of members of a given society is through the instrumentality of the media organs.
The Nigeria’s media scene is currently populated by State and privately owned broadcast stations, a horde of national and local news publications, print and online and a remarkable social media presence.
According to a June 2022 Digital News Report Survey by Tolulope Adeyemo and Chris Roper for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, it was discovered that the vast majority (95 %) of Nigeria’s educated English-speaking citizens access news weekly via digital and social platforms, well ahead of television, 61%, and print 33%. It was however discovered that across the whole population, TV and Radio remain the most important sources of news, even though Internet access is growing fast.
This position largely agrees with that of Onuoha Luke, Rufus Akintoye and others in their Seminar work: Role of Tax Education and Enlightenment on Tax Revenue Growth in Nigeria, where they found out that the Radio and Television are the strongest Tax education channels.
The recommendation by Onuoha, Akintoye and others is instructive: it urged the Federal Government of Nigeria to set up and sufficiently fund an “autonomous department to handle all tax education and enlightenment issues as this can enable the unit function more vigorously.”
FIRS will have to take more proactive steps to mobilize and deploy the media in the critical task of educating and enlightening the public on Tax Issues, if it must succeed in the discharge of its statutorily assigned mandate.
Given the awful statistics of compliance level to tax responsibility by Nigerians, FIRS will have to work out a mutually beneficial partnership arrangement with the media to widen its tax net and deepen its revenue generation through tax.
It will have to embark on a consistent, sustained and result driven education and enlightenment initiative that will encourage more Nigerians to become tax payers.
Since the Media is the bridge between FIRS and the Tax Paying Public, the Agency will need to regularly embark on capacity building to sharpen the skills of Business Editors/Financial Correspondents whose duty it is to report and educate the public on its (FIRS) activities.
Most importantly, FIRS will have to bring millions of productive Nigerians who are currently not tax paying into the tax net, even as it should aggressively ensure that those already captured in the tax net unfailingly discharge their duties to the State, through a strategy that will make the tax payer and the tax collector to see themselves as partners in progress
*Being a paper presented at a one day Capacity Building Training Programme for Media Practitioners and selected Stakeholders in Nigeria’s Taxation System.
Ademola Adedoyin, MSc, FNIPR
Marketing Communication Specialist
Executive Producer / Editor in Chief
Energy and Business Media Nigeria
+2348035915152+2348045915152
dem_doyin@yahoo.com ademolaadedoyin.com