Fred Ezeh , Charity Nwakaudu, Abuja
Tax practitioners in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have accused many tax payers of being ignorant of relevant tax laws as well as its applications particularly the filling of returns, remittances as well as penalties and offences.
The tax practitioners under the umbrella of FCT Tax Practitioners Association, said that such has been responsible for several disagreements with tax officials resulting in unimpressive figures being recorded by tax collecting agencies.
Its Chairman, Kennedy Iwundu, insisted that there was urgent need for reinvigorated public enlightenment that would focus on tax laws, filling of returns, remittances as well as penalties and offences.
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Speaking at the maiden edition of tax payers enlightenment programme in Abuja, Iwundu explained that the enlightenment programme was among the objectives behind the formation of FCT Tax Practitioners Association (TPA).
The enlightenment programme, he added, was also in line with the objective of FIRS and FCT-IRS, aimed at ensuring that tax payers improve on tax remittances in fulfilment of their civic responsibility as enshrined in Nigerian constitution.
He said: “As tax consultants, we observed that our clients (tax payers) have challenges of understanding tax laws and its applications, hence it’s often difficult to make them understand the amount of taxes and penalties they are suppose to pay.
Often, there are always misunderstanding between tax consultants and tax payers as a result of tax payers poor knowledge of tax laws, tax returns, penalties and offences.
We designed the periodic enlightenment meeting so that our clients (Tax payers) would have a better and profound knowledge of tax laws, its returns and penalties with respect to various types of taxes.”
He encouraged participants to freely express their opinions. criticize whatever lapses they observed and most importantly join in the enlightenment campaign.