Double Taxation: Make SME Taxes A Percentage Of Annual Turnover, NASME Tells FG

The President of the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, Degun Agboade, has called on the Federal Government to capture Small and Medium Enterprises under a different tax regime.

He said this should be done in a manner that would make payment of taxes by SMEs a percentage of their annual turnover

The NASME President said these during a discussion on ‘SME’s developmental views and accessing government intervention structure and challenges,’ on TVC News Business Nigeria programme.

Nigeria’s SME sector contributes 48 per cent of the national Gross Domestic Product of Africa’s economic power house.

Faced with huge challenges, Nigeria’s 41.5 million MSMEs also accounts for 84 per cent of the country’s employment.

Agboade said, “Double taxation is real I tell you but to a government or a tax man, he will say their is no double taxation. He will say they are levies and rates. What is the difference? They are coming from the same pocket.

“So for us, double taxation is real and what we are saying is that government should capture SME’s under a different tax regime that will be so simple to make payment of taxes as a percentage of turnover.

” We can talk along this line.Of course if somebody has not done business then it means he is not paying (tax)”

“Outside that tax, there are other ones which are discussed as rates and taxes. Like if you have a pickup as an SME, you will take up to nine to ten permits and licences depending on the state where you are operating for that vehicle. So what do we say that is?”

With the country’s current regulation SME’s are not supposed to pay tax if turnover is below N25m per annum.

Nigeria hopes to increase its none oil revenues as well as expand tax revenues to fund the 2021 budget amounting to N13.08trn.

Despite weak recovery projected for 2021, the government hopes to raise N7.8trn as revenue to fund it’s spendings.

Agboade said SME’s want to pay taxes and want to see where the taxes are channelled.

“The challenge for government now is how to normalized their registration and capture them for planning purposes. You can’t plan if you don’t know the number, but if you have the number, you can plan.

“SME’s have to be registered and have bank accounts as a huge number of them are not captured and unregistered,” he added.