Taiwo Oyedele, chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, has urged Nigerians to comply with the law by filing their annual tax returns, emphasizing that both employers and individuals are required to meet this obligation.
Oyedele made this statement during a webinar organized for HR managers, payroll officers, chief financial officers (CFOs), and tax managers, in collaboration with the Joint Revenue Board.
The webinar was later shared on YouTube.
During the session, Oyedele highlighted that while some employers may have already filed their annual returns, many others are yet to fulfill this requirement.
“In terms of filing returns, you need to file annual returns as employers for your employees. Many of you must have done that already. If you haven’t, you have just a couple of days left to file those returns, including projections of how much you will pay your staff,” he said.
He also pointed out the low compliance rate among individual taxpayers when it comes to self-assessment returns, stressing that the country still faces significant challenges in this area.
“This is one area where we have been non-compliant in Nigeria. In many states, more than 90 per cent—even the most sophisticated states—cannot boast of five per cent filing returns,” Oyedele said.
Further, Oyedele clarified that employees should not assume their tax obligations are complete just because their employers have deducted taxes from their salaries.
“Many people assume that if they are an employee and the employer has deducted pay, they don’t have to do anything. That is wrong. Both under the old and new tax laws, you must still file your returns,” he explained.
He assured Nigerians that tax authorities are working to simplify the filing process.
“I’m sure the tax authorities, Joint Revenue Board, and various state internal revenue services are working on how to make this process simpler and easier. All of us must file our returns, including those earning low income. You must file returns by 31st March of the year in respect of the previous fiscal year,” Oyedele said.
In addition, he pointed out that under the new tax laws, businesses benefiting from tax incentives are now required to disclose those incentives when filing their returns.
“Under the new tax law, if you operate a business as an enterprise and you enjoy certain incentives, you have the obligation to disclose those incentives. There’s a disclosure requirement for tax incentives, which must be made when filing tax returns or shortly after,” Oyedele stated.
