Nigeria’s taxpayer roll will soon hit 45 million, the Executive Secretary, Joint Tax Board (JTB), Sir Oseni Elamah, has said.
He stated this yesterdaty while presenting a report on the new Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) Registration System to the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Tunde Fowler.
According to the statement, “the leap in taxpayer roll is the result of collaborative efforts between the FIRS and State Internal Revenue Services (SIRSs), part of which is the ongoing integration of databases that will fetch the nation a total of 45 million individual and corporate taxpayers.”
Elamah said the JTB, chaired by Fowler, has completed the building of a new TIN Registration System, which is an integration of TIN numbers of various organisations, adding that the growth of the taxpayers’ database is a major flank of the goals of the JTB in collaboration with the FIRS.
Also speaking, Fowler said the launch of the new TIN registration system will make tax payment easier for taxpayers.
“When the integration of the new TIN Registration System is launched, it will afford prospective taxpayers the opportunity to register for tax from the comfort of their homes and print their registration certificate,” Fowler said.
He expressed delight over the completion of the new TIN Registration System, which he said will encourage transparency, efficiency and convenience in tax administration in Nigeria.
“We now have a consolidated database for all taxpayers in Nigeria. If you (a taxpayer) goes to any other country or visit another state in Nigeria and they want to check your tax status, what this means is that they can check your tax status by a touch of a button. We want to assure all taxpayers that we are ready to serve them more with technology, convenience and accountability,” Fowler stated.
On the benefits of the new TIN Registration System, Elamah said:
“State Revenue Authorities are expected to enjoy immense benefits from the new TIN System. Among these are taxpayer information accessibility and accuracy. The registration and recording of taxpayer information is one of the fundamental functions of tax administration and to a great extent, this will drive how other core administrative functions operate. The timely and accurate collection and recording of basic identifying information of the taxpayer will permit the tax administrator to understand its taxpayer base, staff itself accordingly and to effectively plan other core administration functions. The existence of an accurate taxpayer database will inevitably lead to effective compliance programmes observation,” he said.