The Joint Tax Board on Monday said the number of taxpayers in the country would soon hit 45 million.
The Executive Secretary, JTB, Mr Oseni Elamah, disclosed this while presenting a report on the new Taxpayer Identification Number Registration System to the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Mr Tunde Fowler.
Fowler is also the Chairman, JTB.
Elamah stated that the increase in taxpayers was as a result of the collaborative efforts between the JTB and the State Internal Revenue Services.
He said that the ongoing integration of databases would raise the total number of individual and corporate taxpayers to about 45 million.
The number of taxpayers in the country as of the end of December 2018 was estimated at about 19 million.
He also stated that the JTB had completed the building of a new TIN Registration System, which is an integration of TIN numbers of various organisations.
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.”
Elamah added that the redesigned, development and deployment of a TIN system leveraged existing taxpayer data available from databases of multiple organisations like the Corporate Affairs Commission and banks through the Bank Verification Number, National Identity Card Management Commission and others.
On his part, Fowler said the launch of the new TIN registration system would make tax payment easier 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.”
