Tax enforcement: raising standards and protecting rights
Part 1. Introduction: Definition of terminologies: It remains incontrovertible that defining Legal terminologies has been a problem to lawyers. This much was noted by a Professor of Jurisprudence, J.M.A Ojomo when he said;
“As long as definitions are a translation of thoughts into words, they create problems for lawyers. Law itself is an exercise in controversy. And for as long as the teaching of Jurisprudence begins with the hypothesis that words have no particular meaning except in the context within which they are used; therefore depending on the speakers’ abstraction, words are not more than verbal recommendations of what the speaker feels they are in the context which they are used.”
Litigation has been variously defined. Justice Y.V Chandrachud in his book Advanced Law Lexicon described Litigation as:
“A Judicial Controversy, a contest in a Court of Law; a judicial proceeding for the purpose of enforcing a right. Law Suit; process of carrying on a law suit.”
The Black’s Law Dictionary defines litigation as:
“The process of carrying on a law suit. A law suit itself or several litigations pending before the Court.
From the foregoing, it can be said without much fear of contradiction that the category of definitions to litigation and indeed other legal terminologies are never closed and almost always depend on the context in which these definitions are used. However, for the purpose of this paper, Litigation procedures are all those processes involved in undertaking a lawsuit; be it civil or criminal before courts.
a. Civil litigation:
A civil action is often brought to enforce, redress or protect a private or civil rights; a non-criminal litigation. It is a personal action which is instituted to compel payment or the doing of some other thing which is purely civil. It is a proceeding in a court of competent jurisdiction by one party against another for the enforcement or protection of a private right or for the redress or prevention of a private wrong. The civil action maybe involving a private party suing another private party or a private party suing or being sued by the Government but the proceedings do not involve criminal proceedings. Under the Federal Inland Revenue Act civil actions are provided for under Section 34(1) and states as follows:
“Without prejudice to any other provision of this Act, or any other Law listed in the first schedule to this Act, any amount due by way of Tax shall constitute a debt due to the service and maybe recovered by a civil action brought by the Service.”
Civil litigation presupposes that the Federal Inland Revenue Service (hereinafter referred to as FIRS) has legally engaged the defaulting Tax payer with all the statutory demand Notices, Reminders and Distrain. Civil litigation is therefore undertaken as a last resort to redress a particular civil wrong perpetrated against the Service. Under the Federal Inland Revenue Act, the Tax Appeal Tribunal also has jurisdictions to deal with tax related matters which are civil in nature.
It is important to note that for reasons of the nature of the private (non-tax) rights sought to be enforced, the proper parties in any civil litigation undertaken by the Service are: FEDERAL INLAND REVENUE SERVICE Vs. ABC TAX PAYER/A COMPANY.
b. Criminal proceedings:
A criminal proceeding is defined as action or proceeding instituted or prosecuted by the state in its own name against a person(s) who is accused of a crime to punish him therefore. A criminal proceeding is ordinarily one which if carried to a conclusion may result in the imposition of a sentence such as death, imprisonment, fine or forfeiture of property.
It is important to note that the gamut of legal rules that govern the mechanism under which investigation, prosecution, adjudication and punishment of crime as well as protection of the constitutional rights of the accused, constitutes a criminal procedure.
Under the Federal Inland Revenue Act, criminal offences and penalties against the FIRS are listed under Part VI of the Act.
c. Jurisdiction:
Note that the Federal High Court of Nigeria (FHC) has Original Jurisdiction in all causes or matters (civil or criminal) initiated by the Federal Inland Revenue Service. Additionally, any dissatisfied party has the constitutional right of appeal against the decisions of the FHC to the Court of Appeal and where necessary to the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
The Federal Inland Revenue Service has a mandate among other things to administer all the enactments listed in the first schedule to the FIRS act or any other enactment or law on taxation in respect of which the national assembly may confer power on the Service.

2. Civil procedure in liti-gation:
Under civil litigation, the Federal Inland Revenue Service strives to enforce its civil right against a particular Tax payer(s) who has defied all the Statutory Assessments and Demand Notices issued by the Service and duly served on them (the Defendant(s)). The process culminating to a civil action instituted by the Service is as follows:
i. The L&P Department of FIRS as Claimant, files a specially endorsed Writ of Summons and Statement of Claim at the Federal High Court in the location where the Defendant(s) resides or carries on business.

Source: http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/business/29236-tax-enforcement-raising-standards-and-protecting-rights