Nigeria’s Taxpayers’ Roll to Hit 45m as Database Integration Nears Completion

The taxpayers’ roll of the country will soon hit 45 million. This was disclosed in Abuja yesterday by the Executive Secretary of the Joint Tax Board (JTB), Oseni Elamah. Elamah disclosed this while presenting a report on the new Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) Registration System to the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr. Tunde Fowler, who is also the Chairmann of JTB.

Elamah stated that the leap in taxpayer roll is the result of collaborative efforts between the (FIRS) and State Internal Revenue Services (SIRSs), part of which is the ongoing integration of databases that will fetch the nation a total of 45 million individual and corporate taxpayers.

The JTB Executive Secretary also stated that the JTB has completed the building of a new TIN Registration System, which is an integration of TIN numbers of various organisations, adding that the growth of the taxpayers’ database is a major flank of the goals of the JTB in collaboration with the FIRS. On his part, Fowler said the launch of the new TIN registration system will make tax payment easier for taxpayers.

“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,” Fowler said.

He expressed delight over the completion of the new TIN Registration System, which he said will encourage transparency, efficiency and convenience in tax administration in Nigeria.

“I congratulate the JTB for finalising the new TIN Registration System in record time. We now have a consolidated database for all taxpayers in Nigeria. If you (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,” Fowler stated.

On the benefits of the new TIN Registration System, Elamah stated that the state revenue authorities are expected to enjoy immense benefits from the new TIN System.

“Among these are taxpayer information accessibility and accuracy. 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, 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,” he said.

Elamah added that the redesigned, development and deployment of a TIN system leverages on existing taxpayer data available from databases of multiple organisations like CAC (Corporate Affairs Commission, banks through BVN (Bank Verification Number), Identity Card Management Commission and other.