CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      BACKGROUND OF  THE STUDY

        The primary function of the government or any modern societies includes offering protection to its citizens. To provide social amenities and create condition for economy well being of the society surely the discharge of this responsibility requires funding, and one of the way by which government generates fund is through taxation.

        A tax can be defined as all compulsory sum levied by a government and or its accredited either as individual or organization or on goods and services. Irrespective of any corresponding returns of services or goods by the government. In other words, the tax payer does not receive benefit according to the proportion of tax paid, rising of funds is not the  only objectives of taxation.

Other objectives include:

1.          To regulate and control the consumption of certain commodities.

2.          To control monopoly.

3.          To control business and commerce.

4.          To maintain the nations balance of payment.

5.          To allocate resources etc.

A tax can be classified into two categories. Namely:

a)     Direct Tax: these are taxes imposed on the income of individual and business firms, examples are personal income tax, petroleum profit tax, capital gain tax etc.

b)     Indirect Tax: These are taxes imposed on goods and services. Examples are; stamp, custom duties and exit duties, value added tax entertainment etc.

        However, our area of interest in this course of study is company.

        Income tax, which is a form of direct tax, company income tax is a tax imposed on income and profit of corporate bodies, the assessment of which is governed by the Companies Income Tax Act (CITA) of 1979 as amended. The administration of company taxation is vested in the Federal Board of Inland Revenue.

        Federal Board of Inland Revenue was first established under section 3 of the act.

        The income tax administration ordinance of 1958 and has been amended as needs arise presently, the composition of the board as spelt out  by degree No. 3, 1993 has the following provisions.

1.           There shall continue to be a board of which the officials name shall be the federal board of Inland Revenue. There in after in this act referred to as the services.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

        Tax implementation and administration had often not been accorded, the required attention quite often attention has been focused on the widening of the tax basin or  the  introduction of new taxes very rarely do we hear of any concerted effort aimed at improving the administration of tax system as supposed to reform the substantive rules. There is no gain saying to the fact that tax implementation and administration in Nigeria today has not succeeded in achieving the goals of revenue adequacy and equity. Given if we apply the good old test of equity certainty, convenience and administration efficiency, Nigeria will score less than a pass mark. The subject of taxation and its operation have several questions as follows:

1)           The problem of taxation or disclaiming of allowance on income, such as non-existing property, so as to have a generous capital allowance.

2)           Whether there is an efficient means of collecting tax from tax payers, this has until how resulted in reluntance on the part of the tax payers which has lead to a lot of discrepancies.

1.3   OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

        In the light of the above stated problems, this study will have a lot of objectives.

1      To examine the problem militation against tax administration in Nigeria.

2.     To examine the procedures and the problems of company tax administration in Nigeria.

3.     To evaluate efficiency of company tax administration.

4.     To evaluate lapses (if any) in company tax administration in Nigeria.

1.4   SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study will be of great significance to the following:

a.     Analyst and future researchers who will want to carry out investigation along the line of the topic chosen.

b.     The government who is the major benefactor of the revenue generated from income  tax.

c.     Tax payer who are not conversant with the procedure of company’s income tax implementation and administration.

d.     The society in general, and those interested in tax matters in particular.

f.      The Federal Board of Inland Revenue in Edo State and beyond who are the administrations of company income tax.

1.5      SCOPE OF THE STUDY

        This study is based on the company income tax as it applies the Nigeria system in general and Delta State in particular. The case study chosen for this research work is the Federal Board of Inland Revenue. As such, the principal and the practices as it applies to the board will be taken into consideration.

        Moreover, the dealing with the topic on company income tax, we shall be restricted to income tax of companies generated within Nigeria in general and Delta State in particular (i.e disregarding income generated from abroad).

1.6      HYPOTHESIS

        This is a tentative statement that could prove right or wrong through statistical or analytical testing. Hypothesis can either  be “Null” or “Alternative”.

        The null hypothesis (Ho) is usually stated as negative, from whereas the alternative hypothesis (Hi) is usually stated as positive from for the purpose of research. Two hypothesis should be tested and these are:

1.          Ho: Staff motivation does not play  a role in efficient implementation and administration of taxes.

Hi:

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

These are the course of the study.

        Time factor: the time factor given for this research work is too small to enable me gather all the necessary information to handle this topic appropriately.

2.          Finance: gathering of information involve cost of traveling from one area to another; location of  my case study is high, thereby restricting the number of  time. I would have traveled. Also, the more information gather, the more the cost to put together as a whole, hence the information provided as been restricted to the finance available for the research work.

3.          Outdated material in the library: literature containing information on the subject matter are as old as 1987. as we all know, tax law and its provision are received from time to time, hence limiting my access to current information.

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS

a)        Companies in tax: is a tax imposed on the income and profit of corporate bodies.

b)        Companies’ Income Tax Act: the law governing the assessment of company’s income tax.

c)        Federal Board of Inland Revenue: The body empowered by the law to administer and implement, the company’s income tax act, whose operationally aid is known as federal board of inland revenue services.

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