The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun has said that the government has identified over 800,000 tax defaulters including its contractors, saying the government is currently carrying out an audit of defaulting companies.
Although she did not provide the identities of the offending companies, Mrs. Adeosun noted that a situation where the entire country had only 14 million active taxpayers from an economically active base of 70 million was no longer acceptable.
“A cursory look at the effective tax rates paid by the huge multinational and local operators, as well as the data on illicit financial flows, indicates a pattern of systematic tax evasion at all levels.
“Recent statistics released by the Federal Ministry of Finance showed that Nigeria has just 14 million active taxpayers from an economically active base of 70 million. Over 95% of these are salary earners in the formal sector, just 241 persons paid personal income taxes of N20m (US$65,573.77) in 2016,”.
According to Mrs Adeosun, the Ministry of Finance has commenced a database project that combines data from the various arms of government, including bank records, property and company ownership, and customs records, to create accurate profiles of those liable to pay taxes.
