LA ADMINISTRACIÓN TRIBUTARIA CENTRAL EN EL ECUADOR
5.1 FACULTAD DETERMINADORA El Código Tributario, en el Art 68 indica:
5.1.1 Actas de Determinación y Liquidaciones de Diferencias
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smuggling, some of these law enforcement agents aid and abet smuggling.169 In the case of VAT, many businesses have not registered for VAT collection. Nigeria is the largest country in Africa and many small scale businesses are scattered all over the country. The tax authorities do not have the means to ensure that all these taxable persons are registered and account for VAT.
e) Uncertain: Another disadvantage with indirect tax is the fact that it can be very difficult for tax authorities to project exactly how much they are going to get from tax proceeds since the amount of money that is generated from indirect tax largely depends on the strength of demand for the taxed commodities.170 And of course as we might all know, it can be quite difficult to determine the strength of demand for certain commodities. Imposition of taxes or raising the rate of tax on certain goods may cause demand for such goods to drop to zero if the demand is perfectly elastic. Furthermore, revenue from indirect taxes may fall drastically during a period of depression.171
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few places in the West was not as organized. Moreover, the Muslim religion adhered to by the people approved of taxation as being consistent with the demands of Islam.
Therefore, taxes such as Zakka, Gada, Jangobi were typical forms of taxes on agricultural products and livestock.173
In Yoruba land, taxation has always been in the form of ‗ose‘ which is a compulsory community contribution collected for specific projects when occasion warrants it. However, in the Eastern provinces, there was no informal taxation in anyway. One significant difference in the political and social organization of the Igbo from the Hausa, Yoruba, Kanuri and Edo ethnic groups is that the Igbo did not develop monarchial forms of government. This means that they did not have Kings.
The nucleus of their political and social unit was the lineage.174 The absence of a monarchy or any form of central authority made it impossible for a standard form of taxation to be practiced in pre-colonial Igbo society. The closest approximation to a tax system could be said to be the contributions to or collective execution of projects such as community road carried out under the auspices of various social groups such as the age-grade associations.175
With the coming of the British and their subsequent colonization of Nigeria, they took advantage of the native tax system that already existed in the Northern part of Nigeria to introduce direct taxation since that was the only existing option to raise funds to administer the region. Direct taxation was introduced in Northern Nigeria by Lord Lugard by virtue of the Native Revenue Proclamation No. 2 of 1906 which actual collection started in 1907. Direct tax was imposed by the Central Government as the sovereign authority, and the native authorities were to collect and pay the whole
173 FIRS, (ed) A Comprehensive Tax History of Nigeria (Ibadan: Safari Books, 2012) P. 68.
174 T O Elias, Nigerian Land, Law And Custom (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1962) P. 107.
175 FIRS (ed) op cit P. 81.
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to the government who would, in turn, return a large proportion of the collection to the native authorities for the administration of their services. The direct tax, as introduced in Northern Nigeria, was to replace the series of taxes, fares and other forms of irregular collections made by the Emirs before the British conquest.176
In the western provinces, direct taxation was introduced by virtue of the Native Revenue Ordinance of 1918. The tax was also an income tax, based on the income from agricultural and other trades. This tax replaced a number of irregular collections of tributes and presents such as death duties, road tolls in Ijebu, annual levies in Oyo and the regular tribute in Ondo province. In 1918, after Lugard persuaded the colonial office to allow him to introduce taxation in western Nigeria, he was not aware that the Egba people were seething with discontent on other issues prior to the introduction of the new tax regime. In June, 1918 the Egba decided to ‗go to war‘ with the British which resulted in the killing of no less than 500 Egba people.177
In 1927, government imposed taxation on the Itsekiri and the Urhobo (of Asaba and Warri respectively) for road construction, hospitals and schools as was done elsewhere in Southern Nigeria. Consequently, the Native Revenue Ordinance was amended to make it applicable to Asaba Division and Warri Province. The British attempt to extend the direct tax system to these regions was met with series of protests, particularly in Warri Province.178
In 1928, the system of direct tax was extended to the eastern provinces spurting off series of demonstrations in Calabar and Owerri Provinces but the serious
176 Ibid P. 85.
177 S Onabamiro, Glimpses into Nigerian History: Historical Essays (Lagos: Macmillian Publishers, 1983) P.
90.
178 Ibid P. 93.
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resistance to the introduction of direct taxation in the east was the Aba riot of 1929.179 Despite the resentment and strong opposition to the issue of taxation, the colonial government in Nigeria remained undaunted and by the Macpherson Constitution of 1954, Nigeria became a Federation of three regions with each region having substantial measure of self-government.
Prior to 1960, the Raisman Commission was set up to review the existing taxing powers and revenue allocation formula as this had become an issue subsequent to Nigeria becoming a Federation in 1954.180 Based on the recommendation of the commission, four tax legislations were enacted between 1959 and 1961. They are The Petroleum Profit Tax Act 1959, The Stamp Duties Act 1959, The Companies Income Tax Act 1961, and The Personal Income Tax (Lagos) Act 1961.
In the course of administering these principal Acts, each of them has undergone various amendments while new ones have equally been introduced.181 In addition to the amendments introduced to facilitate easy administration of the tax laws, various compliance measures have been introduced, the latest being the self-assessment system which was introduced in 1991. The system which has a lot of incentives was introduced to encourage voluntary tax compliance.182