must_a_far:

Does it matter if the tax laws are set by the federal govt? Yes, its level of implimentation is up lagos state to decide but then as someone said, filling of taxes is different from paying taxes. Filing n having a zero liability means Ɣ☺ΰ  ® not liable to pay anything and your tax clearaance card would reflect that. But soneone not employed doesn't also mean he can't pay tax, he might have share dividend he collects, he might collect rent from a property he inherited, he might be involved in some form of trade.

As regards the individual who brought in a car from yankee and was issue with a 420k tax, the nigerian tax law states that taxable income includes,"income earned in, derived in, accrued in or brought into nigeria. . ." That is the basis with which the car was being taxed using what is called, "best of Judgement" assessment. The information provided by the individual at the tax office is not totally true.

If there are anymore questions I'll be glad to explain or comment on them. But if any name calling or mudslinging occurs I reserve the right to ignore.

this is exactly true, let me add here, the gentleman who thought I was insultaing him cos I used the word ignorant, Im so sorry did not mean it in that way,more so could you tell us under what tax code was your un employed wife taxed translation ,what was the name given to that TAX??

TAXING THE UNEMPLOYED? THIS IS ONE OF THE UNFORGIVEN SINS AGAINST MANKIND.LASG SHOULD THINK OF PAYING THE UNEMPLOYED MONTHLY STIPEND THEN TAX THEM ON THE STIPEND PAID PERIOD![color=#000099][/color][b][/b]

This is absurd, is it really happening in Lagos?

@Erico2k2: No beef, understood.

@must-2-far

As regards the individual who brought in a car from yankee and was issue with a 420k tax, the nigerian tax law states that taxable income includes,"income earned in, derived in, accrued in or brought into nigeria. . ." That is the basis with which the car was being taxed using what is called, "best of Judgement" assessment. The information provided by the individual at the tax office is not totally true.

If there are anymore questions I'll be glad to explain or comment on them. But if any name calling or mudslinging occurs I reserve the right to ignore.

Bros, try read the narration small naah, before commenting! Read my initial Post again PLEASE!

The car was BOUGHT IN LAGOS when he arrived from the States. It was NOT IMPORTED!
Even if it was imported, you pay "all taxes and tarriffs" at PORT CLEARANCE AND REGISTRATION!

Now, the car has been in use (after registration and all dues duly paid) for about a year, before FASHOLA TAX GOONS send a tax demand notice to someone who has "NO BUSINESS with any income" from Nigeria!
Funnily, the "demand was for INCOME TAX"!

Why should a govt be threatening citizens for no good reason? Cant they understand simple English that he does not live or work in Nigeria?
And when he asked them to show proof that "he earned any income" from Lagos, they said he should just go and pay first and complain later!



Question is how can you pay "Income Tax to Lagos State" when you neither live nor work in Lagos (Not even anywhere in Nigeria!)

The wife that works in Lagos pays Tax as Pay-as-You-Earn (PAYE) deducted at source (salary) and she has her tax Certs to prove that.

I hope we will address the substance and stop making excuses for this "glorified touts" called Fashola's Tax officers!

What substance do you wannt us to address. Educate me and I'll takee it from there.

^^^Good, l love your reply.
These are the issues:

1.) Is it right and lawful to ask someone who does not work or earn any income within a domain, to be asked to pay INCOME TAX?
2.) Is it right to just slap Tax on people, without verifying that they actually owe the govt?
3.)Why should the government be using "Force" (area thugs, Mopol, e.t.c) to extort money from people who dont owe them, in the form of Tax? Should Govt not provide evidence to its citizens, to show that they owe them Tax?
4.)Why should Lagos state be taxing residents, on the same item of Tax that the Fed have taxed them on, and even the LGA is joining the fray?
5.) Why should they resort to threat and "pay first and complain later" syndrome, just to extort money form people who dont owe them a dime?
6.) After paying all Port duty (if car was imported) and all prescribed Registration fees on a car and used it for more than a year, is it right for the Govt to be "scheming Residents data" from the E-Reg database and using the "price of such vehicle" to impose tax (Now, INCOME TAX o!) on the people? Do you pay income Tax on the price of a car? Where is the income my brother?
7.)Which "information provided by the individual" at the Tax office is not totally true and can you furnish us with the "true information"?


Now, the ball is in your court. Do justice to it.

Cheers.

Most of these things you listed are not about right or wrong. they are simply what the law says and most of the issues you have raised all boils down to the same thing. What the nigerian tax law says, whether capital gains tax, personal income tax, company tax, petroleum profit tax and the list goes on. hence at this point i'll like you to note that im not here to prove to you whether something is right or wrong. i'll simply explain what happened and led to the sitaution being what it is.

having established the above,

1.) Is it right and lawful to ask someone who does not work or earn any income within a domain, to be asked to pay INCOME TAX?

Going by what the PIT Law says and which i have stated a few times here already. because a potential tax payer does not work or earn income within the boundaries of nigeria doesnt mean that income is not liable to be taxed. actually it is not, it only becomes liable if he brings in a portion of it into nigeria. and the tax would only be due on the portion which was brought in. going by this, i would say it is right and lawful to request the someone you speak of to pay income tax because he must have earned such someway somehow and not necessarily thru paid employment.

2.) Is it right to just slap Tax on people, without verifying that they actually owe the govt?

the onus is on the tax payer/potential tax payer to prove he doesnt owe any taxes through filing. if he files and he proves he doesnt owe then he is cleared for that year and that would be reflected on his tax clearance card.

3.)Why should the government be using "Force" (area thugs, Mopol, e.t.c) to extort money from people who dont owe them, in the form of Tax? Should Govt not provide evidence to its citizens, to show that they owe them Tax?

could you please state an instance where thugs were used to to extort money from people who dont owe them? but if i'll speak on this anyway, i'll say thats the distrain unit of the internal revenue service (whether lagos, delta, jigawa or federal) they are the ones who are allowed by law to have armed police officers accompany them when they go out to distrain (lockup) companies. they dont only go with police officers, they go with a camera crew who records how events unfold. let me state that the reason why a company would be distrained is if after several notices a company still fails to comply and prove that they remitted all PAYE withheld from their employees salaries to the relevant tax authority or the amount withheld and remitted tallies with the number of employees.

4.)Why should Lagos state be taxing residents, on the same item of Tax that the Fed have taxed them on, and even the LGA is joining the fray?

i really do not understand what your point is. but if i'll attempt to respond. i'll first state that, the taxes collected by all the different levels of government are parallel. local govts dont collect taxes, they collect levies, dues, and the likes. state governments collect mainly PIT in their domain, some CGT, etc and federal govt collects petroleum profit tax, company income tax, CGT for companies, PIT for the FCT, excise duty, import duty etc etc.

5.) Why should they resort to threat and "pay first and complain later" syndrome, just to extort  money form people who dont owe them a dime?

this might be a crude way of doing things but if after paying it is established that the taxpayer didnt owe in the first place or didnt owe as much as he had paid, the tax payer gets a rebate which he uses in the future to offset any tax that might be due to him then.

6.) After paying all Port duty (if car was imported) and all prescribed Registration fees on a car and used it for more than a year, is it right for the Govt to be "scheming Residents data" from the E-Reg database and using the "price of such vehicle" to impose tax (Now, INCOME TAX o!) on the people? Do you pay income Tax on the price of a car? Where is the income my brother?

MVAA is a government agency, same as lastma, lawma, lasaa, lamata etc etc. for better working of govt, they share certain information amongst themselves and thus the source of the information the revenue agency used in issuing a best of judgement assessment (BOJ) on the individual that registers a car and but on further checking did not have any records of having paid income tax. you asked if one pays income tax on the price of a car. it is assumed that the money used in purchasing his car is his total taxable income.
hint: if he can prove that the money spent on buying the car was solely from his wife and the wife had paid taxes thru PAYE then he would be let off.

7.)Which "information provided by the individual" at the Tax office is not totally true and can you furnish us with the "true information"?

it was claimed that someone at the tax office said, the govt just randomly picks and slams them with a demand notice. they do not randomly pick, a demand notice would be sent to a potential taxpayer who registers a car but doesnt have any records of paying taxes previously. a demand notice would be sent if a taxpayer claimed to have made a certain amount of money as income from all sources. he was assessed tax based on that and late along the line he buys and registers a car hitting above his income level. e.g. mama tunji who is a trader declares a tradit profit of 200k for a tax period. she is taxed on the 200k then sometime afterwards she goes to register a car worth 1.5million she would be issued an upwardly revised assessment that would come in the form of a demand notice and would have to prove that the money used to purchase the car had previously been taxed.


with that i hope i have explained (i dont intend to convince you) the substance you have raised and how it relates to the tax laws of the Federal republic of nigeria. and if you feel the law is bullmanure, then we might as well all not complain about how our country has turned into a lawless country or better still we all do as we please in all departments.

thank you my brother/sister lastpage for having me. you have succeeded in keeping me awake this late while you sleep

if i failed to explain anything you had asked, please direct my attention to it and i'll do my best to explain.

I would have responded right away but there are too many "assumptions and conjectures" in your reply that l felt l wouldneed time to address them but 1:40am in the night wouldn't be the most ideal!

How can you say the price of a car is "assumed to the the total income of somebody" and therefore make that "quantum leap" to conclude that it must then be his taxable income?
I guess he would not even fuel the car talk-less of paying Rent or feeding!

You keep saying "because HE MUST HAVE", all the time!
Is Tax calculation based on such baseless assumptions?
I know Tax is calculated on hard figures of "Real Income", declared income or estimated income where such estimate is in-line with previously declared income or comparative income of others in similar position but in this case This person did not earn naada from Lagos.

*I said he was charged PAYE! Dont you know this is for "employees"?
Who then was his employer in Lagos? IRS?

Did you see where l said HE ALREADY PAID HIS TAX WHERE HE IS RESIDENT and works?
Or do you pay Income Tax (PAYE) TWICE within the same year?

I can smell you trying to tell me that the failure of the Govt to have "accurate data and database" is the fault of the people whose duty now is to tell them: Hey, l am not a thief, you made a mistake!

Let me hold on till 2morrow please

Cheers.

i am not making assumptions or adding conjectures. our tax law is the one making such assumptions. i agree with you some of it really doesnt make sense and might be bullish but when it comes to the law and the people very few laws are made to favor the ppl especially when it comes to revenue generation. e.g. the fact that one can only claim a maximum of 2000naira for each dependant relative and also claim a maximum of just 2 dependent relatives or the fact that a tax payer can only claim 2500 as allowance for each child he has and has a maximum of 4children he can claim.

in essence, for a dependant relative e.g. our aged parents. even if we spend 1million of each one in a year. when we compute our return. we are only allowed too reduce our liability by 2000 whether we spend just 2k on them or way more and same applies for children.


it seems you are trying to make sense out of the situation (what our tax law dictates), trying to put a human face to it. theres a reason for the saying law is blind. laws are not set to favour us.

must_a_far:

Most of these things you listed are not about right or wrong. they are simply what the law says and most of the issues you have raised all boils down to the same thing. What the nigerian tax law says, whether capital gains tax, personal income tax, company tax, petroleum profit tax and the list goes on. hence at this point i'll like you to note that im not here to prove to you whether something is right or wrong. i'll simply explain what happened and led to the sitaution being what it is.

having established the above,

Going by what the PIT Law says and which i have stated a few times here already. because a potential tax payer does not work or earn income within the boundaries of nigeria doesnt mean that income is not liable to be taxed. actually it is not, it only becomes liable if he brings in a portion of it into nigeria. and the tax would only be due on the portion which was brought in. going by this, i would say it is right and lawful to request the someone you speak of to pay income tax because he must have earned such someway somehow and not necessarily thru paid employment.

the onus is on the tax payer/potential tax payer to prove he doesnt owe any taxes through filing. if he files and he proves he doesnt owe then he is cleared for that year and that would be reflected on his tax clearance card.

could you please state an instance where thugs were used to to extort money from people who dont owe them? but if i'll speak on this anyway, i'll say thats the distrain unit of the internal revenue service (whether lagos, delta, jigawa or federal) they are the ones who are allowed by law to have armed police officers accompany them when they go out to distrain (lockup) companies. they dont only go with police officers, they go with a camera crew who records how events unfold. let me state that the reason why a company would be distrained is if after several notices a company still fails to comply and prove that they remitted all PAYE withheld from their employees salaries to the relevant tax authority or the amount withheld and remitted tallies with the number of employees.

i really do not understand what your point is. but if i'll attempt to respond. i'll first state that, the taxes collected by all the different levels of government are parallel. local govts dont collect taxes, they collect levies, dues, and the likes. state governments collect mainly PIT in their domain, some CGT, etc and federal govt collects petroleum profit tax, company income tax, CGT for companies, PIT for the FCT, excise duty, import duty etc etc.


this might be a crude way of doing things but if after paying it is established that the taxpayer didnt owe in the first place or didnt owe as much as he had paid, the tax payer gets a rebate which he uses in the future to offset any tax that might be due to him then.

MVAA is a government agency, same as lastma, lawma, lasaa, lamata etc etc. for better working of govt, they share certain information amongst themselves and thus the source of the information the revenue agency used in issuing a best of judgement assessment (BOJ) on the individual that registers a car and but on further checking did not have any records of having paid income tax. you asked if one pays income tax on the price of a car. it is assumed that the money used in purchasing his car is his total taxable income.
hint: if he can prove that the money spent on buying the car was solely from his wife and the wife had paid taxes thru PAYE then he would be let off.



it was claimed that someone at the tax office said, the govt just randomly picks and slams them with a demand notice. they do not randomly pick, a demand notice would be sent to a potential taxpayer who registers a car but doesnt have any records of paying taxes previously. a demand notice would be sent if a taxpayer claimed to have made a certain amount of money as income from all sources. he was assessed tax based on that and late along the line he buys and registers a car hitting above his income level. e.g. mama tunji who is a trader declares a tradit profit of 200k for a tax period. she is taxed on the 200k then sometime afterwards she goes to register a car worth 1.5million she would be issued an upwardly revised assessment that would come in the form of a demand notice and would have to prove that the money used to purchase the car had previously been taxed.


with that i hope i have explained (i dont intend to convince you) the substance you have raised and how it relates to the tax laws of the Federal republic of nigeria. and if you feel the law is bullmanure, then we might as well all not complain about how our country has turned into a lawless country or better still we all do as we please in all departments.

thank you my brother/sister lastpage for having me. you have succeeded in keeping me awake this late while you sleep

if you did a business abroad and the income was paid into your account here, the it becomes taxable. But why should tax a CAR as income, it is property, just clothes, laptops, bags, jewellery, phone. So i don't agree that it is income brought in.
what if the car was a gift to mama tunji, its registered in her, would she be required by law to pay tax for that car or its just her business that the assessment should still be based on.
If the car was taxed this year, what if the car got spoilt or its had an accident, meaning 'income' has become less, would she still be taxed.

In life if a man has no challenge that person will stop thinking that why even the unemployed should pay tax because that will increase their zeal of looking for work or creating theirs in order to be able to pay tax. But if they are exempted from it it make many lazy.

nsodo:

In life if a man has no challenge that person will stop thinking that why even the unemployed should pay tax because that will increase their zeal of looking for work or creating theirs in order to be able to pay tax. But if they are exempted from it it make many lazy.

bravo for your thought now what shall we call this TAX paid by the unemployed I wanna KNOW

^^^UN-employment TAX or PAY[b]D[/b]E (Pay As You Dont Earn!)