Finance Act 2019 and Its Implications in Value Added Tax Administration in Nigeria

Abstract

The emergence of Finance Act, 2019 shows that tax revenue collection has finally become a basic parameter for economic development in Nigeria. Ever since Nigeria started the production of crude oil in a commercial quantity in 1956, the economy has been significantly skewed to crude oil dependence with merely little or no efforts for its diversification. But following the recent global fall in crude oil price that has impacted negatively on the national economic development, it has become eminent to divert to other sources of revenue generation than oil and gas sector. This has necessitated the adoption of Finance Act, 2019 in budgeting system that is driven on non-oil tax revenue. This technical paper therefore, discusses Finance Act, 2019 and its implications in Value Added Tax Administration in Nigeria. The paper pinpoints the major amendments of Value Added Tax Act, Cap VI, LFN 2004 (as amended), as contained in the Finance Act, 2019 and highlights their underlining implications as well as provides further clarifications for appropriate implementation of the Act and its ease of administration. It is the assertion of this paper that, tax law on itself does not optimize tax revenue collection, but effective and efficient administration of tax law does. It is also the purport of the paper to enhance human capacity in harnessing the opportunities lying therein, which would in turn, optimize tax revenue collection and voluntary compliance that can make taxation the pivot of national development. The paper employs secondary model of data collection and recommends for speedy linkage of the tax identification number with the bank biometric verification number of each tax paying public to eliminate the high tendency of tax evasion scheme in Nigeria.