PROBLEMS OF INCOME TAX ASSESSMENT AND COLLECTION

ABSTRACT

With the present economic predicaments in the country, most people found it very difficult to cope with the high cost of living. This is true, because the government is not generating enough revenue as expected and such things affect the budget of the year. It all meant that the government may not have enough money to provide social amenities for the individuals.

Therefore the government, individuals depend on revenue for the execution of their projects. The need may be defense, education, transport, agriculture or provision of shelter for their citizens. How far, therefore, government can go in solving such problems is function of the revenue.

In writing this topic, I decided to include the problems of people in the pigment of taxes or what makes them to bulge the payment of taxes

However, among other chapters, chapter three deals specifically on the findings summary and recommendation.

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW AND DEFINITION OF TERMS

Taxation, tax assessment and collection with their associated problems have received attention in public and among seasoned writers. This is what it should be because there has been increasing emphasis on revenue generation in recent times. Government activities in Nigeria is almost grinding to a halt because of the inability of the state government to meet the demand for increasing the salaries of their workers. This is caliamed to be due to lack of sufficient revenue on the part of the state government. In such circumstances the issue of tax is bound to be topical.

But what is tax? The oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of current English defines tax a sum of money to be paid by citizens (according to income, value of purchase etc) to the government for public purpose. The definition assumes that to be taxed, a citizen must have earned income to purchase taxable goods and that the tax payer must be a citizen and that the claim appears narrow. Tax is a levy paid by a resident of a state provided the resident is within a taxable age. Mr. J. O.E. Afulukwe shared that view in his not on General Principles of taxation. In 1975, when he said that tax can be defined as a compulsory contribution to the public authority to meet the expenses of government and the provision of general benefit

Tax can also be defines as a compulsory levi imposed by the government on the income of a citizens. It must be distinguish from which is an impost by a state on person which are resident or earn income within the state.

in Simon’s income tax (1952) Lord Mechagh was quoted as saying that income tax if may be pardoned for saying so, is a tax on income. It is not meant to be a tax essentially on anything else. It is not collection of taxes essentially distinct. The essential element of that definition is that tax has to be based on income and assessed as one within a given tax year. If you derive your income from various sources (eg profession, the rent, and dividend|) the income from all the sources must be aggregated and assessed together, not as series of taxes by one tax.

Personal income tax is levied on the income of any individual residing or deemed to be residing in any state. Section 3 of the income tax management Act 1961 prescribes person liable to income tax to include individuals trustees of a trust or settle, executor of estate of a deceased person, body or group of individuals other than limited liability companies, communities or families and itinerated workers.

Section 12 (1) B) of the finance law, 1962 however exempted income of a corporation established by a state government from paying tax.

Personal income tax must be distinguished from the company tax which is levied on the earning of limited liability companies, whether private or public., part II schedule D, paragraph 7 of the 1989 constitutions of Nigeria spells out the taxing power of the state of income other than company tax, thus leaving tax in the hand of the federal government.

In terms of assessment it was asserted in Simion’s income tax (1952) “for income tax purposes assessing means the process of making assessment, and it covers the process from the examination of the completed return forms, if any, to the issue of notices showing the amount of the tax payable” to my own mind definition appears circular and does not take any one to power understanding of the word assessment.