Professor Sanni tasks local, state gov’t over replication of tax reform act at Eko Club Business Luncheon    

Professor Abiola Sanni SAN the Dean Faculty of Law University of Lagos has counseled the States and Local Governments in Nigeria, to toe the expedient path by replicating the tax reform model in their domain.

The renowned scholar-Professor Sanni gave the charge as the Guest Speaker at the Eko Club Public Lecture on the theme: Fiscal Federalism And The Year 2025 Tax Law Reform on Wednesday.

According to him the Federal Government had churned out a very laudable policy document but it will only translate into greater gains for the generality of Nigerians, if domesticated by the cadres of government closer to them at the states and local governments.

“This tax reform started with focus and that focus was provided by tax policy, we had a tax policy document in 2017 but the President simplified it.

“He said do not tax the poor, do not tax the tree, tax the fruit, do not tax the capital, do not tax investment and that has guided the contents of this reform.

“We have a federal system which means we have federal taxes, state taxes and local taxes.

“All these reforms are mainly about federal taxes, the taxes enacted by the National Assembly, that is why you have Nigerian Tax Administration and Nigerian Revenue Service Establishment Act.

“The states also have their own taxes and I am saying that the states should complement this reform.by also looking at their own states and local government taxes.

“There are things that have been happening at the local government level that persist as we speak, non-state actors have taken over, local governments are practically ungoverned don’t let us deceive ourselves because what services are they providing?

“I am saying that state should seize this opportunity to even reform the local government system, let’s turn them to service delivery centers, where people can go and feel government and I said in my paper that even when we were young, we saw that local governments was functional so let us revisit it.”

Earlier in his welcome address, the Eko Club President Adedeji Lawal espoused the brain behind the club’s periodic business luncheons, which is often geared towards facilitating cross fertilization of business ideas amongst members who get immensely enriched by the contributions of invited experts, captains of industries and prominent individuals holding the ace in various sectors of the economy.

He motioned that the discourse stands as the club’s contribution of corporate social responsibility to enrich the society.

According to him the choice of the topic of discourse bothering on tax reform was due to the traction it had in the public space ever since the policy document was hatched, citing the apprehension and fear of the unknown that pervades the minds of members of the public.

For Tajudeen Afolabi Ibraheem the Chairman Organizing Committee of the Eko Club Public Lecture, reforms are constant in any given society and the need for better sensitization in the manner the deliverables are communicated to the citizen matters most, he however, posited that the gains of the reform is immediate in forms of tax relieves owing to appropriate filling of tax returns.

The guest speaker Professor Sanni however, contextualized the scope of the tax reform coverage in his presentation citing the intricacies of the provisions of the acts and the benefits for the average Nigerian citizens.

“Until you check some of the position of the reform act, you won’t believe they exist.

“For the first time issues that have been plaguing the tax system like credit loans, have been dealt with even by the withholding tax regulations which implies that people who had suffered tax at source, when it comes to payment, they would not have the opportunity to use credit to reduce their tax burden.

“Now all that is history, now coming to the tax acts themselves, the first one we now have thresholds; for income tax if you earn anything below 800,000 no tax, for companies if the turnover is less than 100 million no tax.

“For capital gain tax if the gain is less than 10 million no tax and again if turnover I mean what you used to trade is not up to 150 million no tax, then furthermore, even if the gain is more than 10 million and then the turnover is more than 150 million if you reinvest by buying shares in the same year no tax, then stamp duty if the value of the document is not up to 10 million there is no stamp duty anymore.

“This also relates to rents that exceed one million, these are good news and furthermore businesses who have incurred expenses before they commenced business as far back as six years they can net-off the expenses.

“Businesses who were employing when others were retrenching, they can net-off the salaries and those retains without retrenching they can also benefit. What else do you expect a tax reform to do?

“So, the question now is who are the people that are against the tax reform? If a tax reform is saying let the poor breathe 70 per cent or more of the people no tax, who are the opposed to it?

“They must be those who are powerful, those who feel that it may now be difficult for them to hide, they must be the ones behind the massive misinformation about the contents of the tax reform.

“What I would recommend is there has never been a time when a tax reform is this debated and I commend Eko Club for bringing this to the fore.

“So, people should try and get a copy of the law and read and digest the laws themselves and make sense of them, don’t just run with what you hear in the social media.” Professor Sanni counseled.