Fowler identifies obsolete laws as hiccup to tax system

The Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Ser­vice (FIRS), Mr. Tunde Fowler has identified obsolete tax laws and rigourous amendment processes as major setbacks improving tax system in Africa.

He spoke at the Annual Tax Conference of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, Ghana, (CITG) where he was also giv­en an award as an Honourary Fellow of CITG for his contri­butions to the tax institute.

He delivered the lead pa­per at the conference: “Strate­gies for revenue mobilisation in contemporary times: challeng­es in tax legislation”.

Fowler, who stated that gov­ernments fund budget either by levying taxes or borrowing, noted that whatever taxmen do must still be within the ambit of the law.

According to a statement by the FIRS Head of Communica­tions and Servicom, Wahab Gb­adamosi, Fowler observed that though it is tasking, it is still possible to collect taxes with existing laws.

He noted specifically that obsolete laws and challeng­ing law amendment processes were some of the challenges to tax legislation in Africa.

He said the situation is not bleak as tax administrators must be innovative, purposeful, dedicated and result oriented.

He said that with their con­duct, tax administrators could convince legislators and elected office holders of the direction that tax legislation should go.

He maintained that once this is clear and lawmakers and power holders are convinced that tax administrators are pushing for those changes for collective good, changes in tax legislation will not be difficult to advocate.

Other routes to overcoming tax collection challenges Fowl­er enumerated include, collabo­ration with stakeholders, robust taxpayer education, simplifying tax laws, review of waivers and exemptions, discouragement of impunity and flouting of tax laws.

“One issue that is clear is that there can be no success­ful revenue mobilization with­out a sound tax law regime as a platform for implementing the strategy. Strategies which are implemented without a sound legal footing usually fail or do not stand the test of time”, he said.

He canvassed that no amount of tax should be ne­glected as such amount would help government to implement development programmes for the people.