Tax Compliance (Active Tax Payers) and Non-Oil Tax Revenue in Nigeria: Exposition of Fiscal Exchange Theory and Expectation Proposition

Abstract

The paper investigated the tax compliance (active tax payers) and non oil revenue in Nigeria in relation to fiscal exchange theory and expectation proposition. The study adopted ex post facto research design; secondary data for nineteen years (2003 - 2022) were collected from various issues of the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) statistical bulletin and annual reports. Tax compliances as regressand variable was measured with number of actual annual total non oil tax revenue in Nigeria and Tax compliances among active tax payers of company income tax (CIT), Petroleum profit tax (PPT), Capital gain tax (CGT), Value Added Tax (VAT) and Personal Income Tax (PIT) as regressors. The data was analyzed using multiple regression analysis to establish the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. The findings revealed that tax compliance have significant effect on boosting tax revenue generation and that tax default can cause significant variation in government revenue. The variable in the model is significant at the 5% critical level and the regression coefficient reveals that 72.8% of the total variation in revenue is accounted for by tax compliance with other variables in the stochastic term accounting for the remaining 27.2%. Specifically, Tax Compliance (Active Tax Payers) is significantly and positively related to Active Tax Payers on Value Added Tax (ATVAT) (1.827925 ), Active Tax Payers on Company Income Tax (ATCIT) (2.84599) and Active Tax Payers on Petroleum Profit Tax (ATPPT) (2.286043 ), while Tax Compliance (Active Tax Payers) is negatively and insignificantly correlated with Active Tax Payers on Personal Income Tax (ATPIT)( -0.236908 ) Active Tax Payers on Capital Gain Tax (ATCGT)( - 0.236908 ) . It is recommended that Federal Inland Revenue Service should open more offices across the federation to increase the ease of paying taxes, set performance targets for managers of tax offices and sanction for non-performance.