The President, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Mr Adesina Adedayo, has said the institute is empowering lawyers to boost taxation practice and revenue in the country.

He spoke during the legal practitioners’ conversion training programme which was organised by the CITN in Lagos.

“You can be assured that by the end of this conversion training programme, you would become eligible to join the growing list of professionals on the roll call of the CITN,” he said.

He said the the first barge of the 2023 legal practitioners conversion training programme was relevant for the profession of taxation in Nigeria.

Considering the important role of taxation in economic development and sustainability in Nigeria, he said, the place of professionalism in its administration and practice could not be downplayed.

Adedayo noted that as a knowledge based organisation, the CITN was mandated by laws of Nigeria to set standards for the knowledge and skills to be attained by any person seeking to become a tax professional.

For any individual to be considered a professional, such a person must be certified and well acquainted with the intricacies and principles of that profession, he said.

For this reason, he added, the council of the CITN prescribed the training programme as a prerequisite for admitting legal practitioners into the membership of the institute.

“Amidst insufficient revenue from export earnings, rising debt burdens and increasing government’s expenditure in Nigeria, taxation has become the only hope of the nation,” he said.

A tax consultant, Dr Olumide Obayemi of faculty of law, University of Lagos, said a good tax system must be straightforward, simple and coherent.

He said the tax profession needed fresh ideas to launch Nigeria into the prosperity, while ensuring tax justice.

According to him, a good tax system should ensure ease of payment and collection, use of electronic means, focus on informal sector, focus on indirect tax, and reduction of multiplicity of taxes among others.

Obayemi noted that there were Finance Acts that had been legislated, which aimed to enlarge tax regime, practice and implementation in the country.

He said that developments in the tax laws in the country would help to boost tax revenue from electronic businesses.

In this article