The Federal Government on Monday said the new Tax Identification Number Registration system would boost the total number of taxpayers in the country to about 45 million. Mr Oseni Elamah, the Executive Secretary, Joint Tax Board, disclosed this during the presentation of the new TIN registration system report to the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, who also doubles as JTB Chairman, Mr Tunde Fowler. Elamah attributed the improvement to the collaborative efforts between the JTB and the State Internal Revenue Services. He said the integration of the databases across government organizations in the country would raise the number of individual and corporate taxpayers to around 45 million. The total number of taxpayers in the country was put at 19 million as at the end of December 2018. He further revealed that the JTB new TIN Registration System, which is an integration of TIN numbers of various organizations would help enhance the organization. He said, “The registration and recording of taxpayer information is one of the fundamental functions of tax administration and to a great extent, this will drive how other core administrative functions operate. “The timely and accurate collection and recording of basic identifying information of the taxpayer will permit the tax administrator to understand its taxpayer base, the staff itself accordingly and to effectively plan other core administration functions. “The existence of an accurate taxpayer database will inevitably lead to effective compliance programmes observation.” According to the board, the new TIN system leveraged on existing database of taxpayers from organizations such as banks through the Bank Verification Number, National Identity Card Management Commission, Corporate Affairs Commission and others. Speaking on the new TIN system, Tunde Fowler, said the new system would ease the process of payment for taxpayers. He said, “When the integration of the new TIN Registration System is launched, it will afford prospective taxpayers the opportunity to register for tax from the comfort of their homes and print their registration certificate. “We now have a consolidated database for all taxpayers in Nigeria. If a taxpayer goes to any other country or visit another state in Nigeria and they want to check your tax status, what this means is that they can check your tax status by a touch of a button. “We want to assure all taxpayers that we are ready to serve them more with technology, convenience and accountability.”

Source: Investor

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