IMPACT OF SELF-ASSESSMENT TAX SYSTEM IN ENTHRONING TAXPAYER’S VOLUNTARINESS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examines the impact of self –assessment system (SAS) or regime where such system has been adopted. SAS ultimately reduces administrative costs of the authorities, and where aided by modern technology, most countries have adopted the system to drive down cost and ensure timeliness in filing tax returns. In the same view, SAS seems to reduce the discretionary powers of the tax officials, and thereby reduces the opportunity for corruption. Pursuant thereto, this entry is thus an academic contribution to examine the objectives of SAS holistically and in particular, to determine to what extent the nation’s tax regime has been able to benefit from the system since its inauguration in the country. To prosecute this investigation, the authors adopted the doctorial methodology, by engaging expository and analytical approaches. Also relied on were primary and secondary sources of data collection. It was the findings of the investigation, among others, that for over three decades or thereabout since the adoption of SAS in Nigeria, that system is yet to take root firmly. Such has been the case because the nation’s tax laws, in the main, seem not to have ignited the envisioned acceptability of SAS. In that light, SAS has not been able to actualize fully its mission since inauguration. Consequent upon that, this entry therefore propounded an overhaul of the contentious provisions of the extant tax laws regulating SAS in Nigeria, going forward.