Taxing Citizens’ Responsibly Is Hallmark Of Good Tax Policy

To start with, taxing citizens responsibly entails a social compact where governments fund essential services like education, healthcare, agriculture, defense and infrastructure in exchange for mandatory tax contributions.

However, a responsible tax system should be fair, with the burden distributed according to the ability to pay, ensuring that all citizens contribute to the common good, and that those with greater wealth pay a more substantial part.

It is noteworthy to say that the essential part of taxing your citizenry is “the ability to pay”. Are we not taxing a negative net income in Nigeria with the inflation rate that defies all logic?

In a video, the Chairman, Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, spoke about what your NIN and BVN will be doing in 2026 to income tax. Is this not a multiple tax system on a single individual, whereby even your airtime will be targeted?

Is this not a wrong timing tax regime in a poverty-stricken country, and will it add up?

Do we not already have “sales tax” and “value added tax (VAT)” on the device phone application you are using to call when you bought it, and does the air-time or data you are using not come with taxes?

What measures are we using to tax the drivers and agberos (bus conductors) in the transportation sector? How do you determine the actual gross income of a bus conductor to get the percentage of his income that will be taxed? In a civilized society, tax policy is not based on judgement or assumption, and you cannot assume or suggest eligible tax payer’s gross income in order to tax it. There has to be a metric formula – based on facts and figures – to determine how much will be taxed.

In United States of America, every self-employed people has the opportunity to declare their self employment incomes at the end of the fiscal year, and this includes all your incomes and expenses. The government already has a system to verify the income you have declared – in other words, you can only tax what I declare as income with verified documents.

Though, I support the fact that every eligible citizenry should pay taxes, we however have a long way to go to make sure our tax policy in a poverty-stricken country is not counter productive.

Are we not taxing a negative net income when it is a known fact that a monthly minimum salary of N70,000 cannot buy a 50kg bag of rice for a family of four in a month?

The wide inflationary gap in the country, vis a vis severe hunger across the country, has made the issue of Tinubu’s Tax Regime a sine qua non.

Tell President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his co-travelers, led by Taiwo Oyedele, to take the bull by the horns to fix the severe hunger in the land and bridge the wide inflationary gap before he can responsibly introduce a new Tax Policy to tax the citizenry.

Prejudice apart, and without mincing words, some of the PBAT’s new Tax Policies, if implemented in this period of economic hardship, will only “kill an ant with a sledge hammer.” ⚒.

Flashback :

“Dollar could settle at N650 to N750 before the end of 2023” – Chairman of Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele.

This Statement on record was made in October of 2023 when the exchange rate of Dollar to Naira was at N1,800 to $1.

Suffice it reflect : “Did Mr. Taiwo Oyedele’s prediction, based on his own economic analysis, not ‘hit the rock’ by the end of the year 2023 to the extent that our local currency, Naira, for almost 2 years now has continued to fluctuate between N1,500 and N1,600 to $1?”
“Can we truly trust Mr. Taiwo Oyedele that his advanced knowledge on fiscal policy and tax reforms will not be a flop in a severely hunger-stricken society with a wide inflationary gap that defies all logic?”

Only Time Will Tell.

David Adeyinka Adenekan is the Editor of ‘Shekinah International Magazine’ and a media consultant. He is also the secretary of ‘Afenifere Diaspora USA’. He writes from Chicago, Illinois.

[email protected].

Disclaimer: This article is entirely the opinion of the writer and does not represent the views of The Whistler.