Principles of Taxation in Nigeria

Taxes were passed by Parliament following the French and Indian War. To protect its colonies, the British were forced to fight against the French and the Native

In government, taxation, people receiving different amounts of money according to their means and status, when in taxation, people are supposedly made to pay more or less depending on level of earnings, class and status, for example; the richest pay very little to the reserves, and they are exempted from paying taxes even though there are legal loop-holes devised and provided especially for them by the same government this makes the poorest in society pay more taxes.

Taxation, a method by which a state, local, or federal government collects money from its citizens in order to fund the operations of the governmental body. When our nation first began, it was built upon the unanimous hope of freedom from Europe shared amongst a group of brave men and women willing to risk their lives to make the journey across the ocean in order to found a nation free from the King. In the late 1700’s, the 13 colonies of America were established; free from the rule of a monarchy, the Americas were an independent nation run under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation formed a weak form of government under which the balance of powers between the state and national government were unbalanced. Congress had no power over the states; they could not collect taxes which were vital for the survival of the emerging nation. It was not until approximately ten years later that the United States Constitution was ratified and a democratic government was formed under which a balance of power between state and federal governments was enforced. Under the new system, congress could impose taxes upon citizens for the purpose of paying the country’s debt, security and welfare.

Oppressive tax laws were passed by the British government. British Parliament later created the Townshend duty in June 29, 1776, this charged a tax on imported items like paper, paint, glass, and tea. Indirect tax which means that a specific tax, value added tax, or goods and services tax is a tax collected by an intermediary from the person who bears the ultimate economic burden of the tax. Direct tax which means a tax, such as income tax, that is levied on the income or profits of the person who pays it, rather than on goods or

• “The taxes for paying that proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of the several states within the time agreed upon by the United States in Congress assembled.” Articles of Confederation, Section VIII • Without a way to collect taxes , congress could not pay war debts or make a national budget. • “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.” United States Constitution, Article I, Section VIII, Clause I • After levying taxes became a federal power

The tax system was created as a way for the government to raise revenue and provide services on the behalf of those who pay those taxes. The burden of the level of taxes paid by the citizen seems to continue to increase, but the purpose of tax exemptions, according to the Louisiana Budget Project, is to encourage certain activities-such as economic development, the hiring and training of the unemployed, and the development of low-income housing. The

Taxation allocation was by distributing tax by population and the economic stability of each colony for the official bill. This idea supported economically weaker colonies by lessening the amount of tax from them and spreading the taxation around to those

The British decided to tax the Americans, as they believed it was necessary as a result of the colonies obtaining advantages of British troops. In order to clarify that the

The People shall have the power to construct laws and public policies and to form taxes.

Constitutionally, the government has the right to tax its citizens. The idea of the states working together to defend against enemies and for the general welfare of the

In order for these governments to function there was a need for revenue to meet the expenses incurred by these governments. This need for revenue was met by levying taxes on individuals and businesses. It has always been a question to the population being taxed as to whether or not the government was doing a good job in assessing and managing the money it collected from taxes.

Tax system is a legal system of imposing and collecting taxes from the citizens of the country. As it has been stated by Albert Einstein, the hardest task in the world is to understand the tax system of a country. The United States’ tax system is so complicated that its tax code contains almost 3 million words and 6,000 pages. Moreover, the taxes implied by city and state governments add more complexity to the federal taxation system. In this case, we do not need to understand the complexity of tax code system in order to get acquainted with the significant role of taxes in American society.

When the government gets involved and taxes goods and services, it raises revenue for the government, decreases the quantity of goods produced and consumed and therefore, both consumers and the producer of the good will pay, splitting the costs of the tax and leveling up with society’s.

Taxation systems are usually modeled in such a way that they take into consideration the social welfare of the citizens. The government and other policy makers have the responsibility of ensuring that the system takes into account the needs of the citizens. The bottom line is that taxation should foster equal distribution of resources. The rate of taxation is usually arrived at after several considerations have been made. The rates are not fixed as they depend on the various economic changes. The issue of how taxation should be distributed among the different economic classes is yet to be addressed.

I’ve summed up the introduction of Taxation to these slight words. Taxation is defined as a way that the government able to generate or collect revenue from the citizen of one’s nation through different sources. As what I’ve learned from Taxation course that there are two types of taxation, direct which are paid by the taxpayer directly to the government, and indirect which are collected by an intermediary (like a retail store) from the consumer. The intermediary who will file the tax return later and forward the amount of the money to the government with the return. This tax is applicable to organizations and individuals. In this reflection, I would like to highlight what I learned of business and individual taxation, the experience on working with a group for the project and what challenges I faced and how I was able to get past.