Nigeria’s tax goals: Automation driven small businesses can help

ITREALMS:

To drive higher levels of payroll and accounting automation among businesses, especially small, micro and medium-sized enterprises, would help Nigeria to achieve its tax goals, says the Regional Director for Sage West Africa, Mr. Magnus Nmonwu, reports ITRealms.

Reacting to the recent comments accredited to International Monetary Fund (IMF) which warned that Nigerian governments’ ability to effectively finance infrastructure and services is constrained by low tax collection, said that despite recent tax reforms by the Federal Government, Nigeria needs to grow tax revenue by registering more tax payers and enhancing collections and compliance.

Initiatives such as the government’s Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) - hich gives taxpayers an opportunity to voluntarily declare all previously undisclosed assets and income are steps in the right direction, he adds. Higher levels of automation and modernisation among tax authorities as well as increased use of digital filing and payment are also positive developments.

“Another way Nigeria’s Federal and State Governments could enhance compliance is by encouraging businesses of all sizes to use technology to streamline capturing of transactions and automate payroll calculations. These solutions can help minimize the risk of non-payment of tax or incorrect remittances of taxes to the relevant government agencies,” he said, stressing that the ability to generate financial statements, tax certificates, reports and electronic payslips with the click of a button is a major timesaver.

“An automated, cloud-based solution also means that businesses have an audit trail and reliable backups for all of their financial transactions, so that they can demonstrate their compliance with tax laws,” he said.

Such software, he said, could help address some of the complexity Nigerian businesses face in paying tax, as Nigeria aims to move from its current position of 181 out of 189 countries to top 50 on the Ease of Paying Taxes World Report, which means that we will see a lot of reform of the tax system in the years to come.

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