The presidential fiscal policy and tax reforms committee has disclosed plans to review the national withholding tax laws to exempt small businesses from paying withholding taxes.
The chairman of the committee, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed on Tuesday during a stakeholder engagement session with trade associations and non-government organisations, including the Civil Society and Religious Organisations.
He disclosed that critical issues under consideration for the committee include a new national tax & fiscal policy framework, harmonisation (taxes and levies, revenue administration, reporting) and a single national revenue window.
Others include consolidation and redrafting of major tax laws, introducing a new withholding tax (deduction at source) regime with lower rates for active income, the exemption for SMEs, and clarity regarding critical requirements such as cash basis and credit notes.
He said, “We do not want to tax capital, investment, we do not want to tax production, and we do not want to tax poverty, and as Mr President put it correctly, we do not want to tax seeds but tax fruit.
“And what that means, essentially, is that Nigeria, as a country, would work with you and support you, to invest, to plant the seeds, we work with you to water it, till it grows and when the fruits come up, now we can share it with the country by way of taxes.
“And even those taxes have to be reasonable, also, we do not plan to introduce new taxes. We think we can collect more by just closing the gap in compliance and addressing significant levels of invasion in our country.
“And that also means that we want to repeal many of the existing taxes and exempt more people who should not be paying taxes and are being asked to pay.”