Abstract
The use of property tax to salvage the recurrent financial insolvency of government at all levels in Nigeria have achieved little success over the years. Concerted efforts to improve this situation have achieved little success. This study therefore investigates the potential of titling at enhancing property taxation in Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. Data was obtained from the purposive selected areas of Akure and the Ondo State Ministry of Lands and Housing as well as the Ondo State Board of Internal Revenue. Data analysis reveals that 85.5 percent of the residents are without title to their land, while only 11.86 percent of the residents who titled their land paid their ground rents up to date. The difference in the means of the ground rent paid as a form of property tax by residents with titled land and the ground rent anticipated from residents without title to their land is statistically significant at 0.001. Stringent requirements, poor service delivery as well as lack of sensitization on guidelines and procedures to follow are major constraints to titling in the study area. There was a strong negative correlation between titling and property tax. Capacity building in systematic titling project is a worthwhile policy option for improved titling culture in the study area.
Highlights
The concern of many Nigerian states and local governments is to make their municipalities engines of growth and structural transformation
The analysis of the data revealed that land registration and other land related fees as an aggregate of the total taxes generated was small. This implication of this scenario is that the revenue generated on land registration and other land related fees in Ondo state is so small that its contribution to Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) may not be felt
According to Nazneen et al (2005) and Cho 2003 cited in Lixing (2012), land titling is a veritable tool that can assist governments with necessary info relating to a particular landed property for effective property tax system
Summary
The concern of many Nigerian states and local governments is to make their municipalities engines of growth and structural transformation. The challenge of funding public service and infrastructure provision at all levels of government in Nigeria have been further aggravated by over relying on the dwindling revenue allocations from the Federal Government which majorly depends on fluctuating global crude oil price. Different State Governments in Nigeria have resulted into property taxation as one of the internally-generated revenue alternatives to complement the declining federal revenue allocations. According to Jean (2016), property taxation has been described as one of the important revenue sources within the reach of governments in most developed and many developing countries. Property taxation on the other hand includes the property taxes and fees such as; ground rent, capital gain tax, land use charge and capital transfer tax, amongst others paid by property owners or occupants in accordance with the extant law. Property taxes are usually levied on all types of properties including residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural properties
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