Nigeria has a great playbook on taxation innovation. Where we have issues are in growth innovation. Yet, this VAT is not a bad: “The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has said that a 7.5 percent value added tax (VAT) will be charged on radio and television masts, transmission lines, cell towers, mobile homes, caravans, and trailers, from September 1, 2023.
But for all, this my #1 rule: people willingly pay tax because tax is working in their lives just as people willingly pay insurance because insurance saves their future. Nigeria needs to return to the age of TRUST. Yes, in the past, men and women willingly contributed money, and sent it to the government, to advance society, because they trusted governments.
Then, Chief Sam Mbakwe (former governor of Imo State) would appear on IBC (Imo Broadcasting Corporation) Owerri with a piece of paper, explaining the state’s liabilities and why he needed more funds. The next day, Peoples Club, etc would call emergency meetings, to raise funds to close the loopholes.
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My grandmother was a big fan of Mbakwe because the man came to build a power plant in Isuikwuato. When the governor asked for some help, she gave me 25 kobo to give to my headmaster. If you studied during Mbakwe time, it was common in old Imo State. People donated to the state government, willingly. That used to be Nigeria!
Peoples Club: do you still send money to any modern governor in Nigeria? People, Nigeria’s problem is that the citizens do not TRUST governments at all levels and that is why people hate these new taxes, fees, VAT, etc. We MUST reverse that trajectory to advance the nation.
TAX and Tech
In the US, they’re deploying AI to help improve tax collection.
The Internal Revenue Service is planning to use artificial intelligence to investigate possible tax evasion by large hedge funds, real estate investors and private equity groups. The initiative taps part of an $80 billion allocation from last year’s Inflation Reduction Act. IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel says AI will help the agency identify previously unseen patterns and trends suggesting potential tax evasion schemes and be used to help audit 75 of the largest partnerships in the U.S. by the end of the month. The partnerships each have more than $10 billion in assets. The IRS will send notifications to 500 other large partnerships in October warning of possible audits.
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Oil money corrupted both the brain and soul, and with the debasement in dignity the military regimes unleashed, by the time ‘democracy’ returned in 1999, we were so euphoric that we took our eyes off the ball, and politicians conniving with military guys desecrated and plundered what was left. Now we are left with illusions and identity crisis.
The mess is deep, but we are here to attempt a comeback once again.