Voluntary assets and income declaration scheme (VAIDS) and tax compliance in Nigeria

2021, Vol. 3, Issue 2

Voluntary assets and income declaration scheme (VAIDS) and tax compliance in Nigeria

authors
Osirim Monday, Gospel J Chukwu, George C Wadike

abstract
The study investigates the effect of tax reforms in the form of voluntary assets and income declaration scheme (VAIDS) on tax compliance cum revenue generation in Nigeria. To achieve this objective, various tax reforms from independent Nigeria until date and their influences on tax compliance level and revenue mobilization were evaluated and discussed from a conceptual, theoretical and empirical viewpoints. This was complemented with the administration of 120 copies of questionnaire to respondents adopting 5-point likert scale format. Findings reveal that Nigeria still ranked very low in tax compliance and ease of tax payment in the world taking 182 out of 190 and having a lower tax to GDP ratio of 6% compared to 26.2% by South Africa. The paper also reveals that most of the tax reforms initiated and implemented by the government in Nigeria are effective in improving tax revenues but the actual target anticipated has not been attained because of the incidence of tax evasion, complexities, corruption and distortions still dotting the Nigerian tax space in the face of the scheme. This becomes more convincing as the analysis of variance supported by the unstandardized coefficients indicate a positive but insignificant relationship between VAIDS and Tax Compliance level in Nigeria leading to the acceptance of the null hypothesis. Besides, the study reveals that it takes more than VAIDS to promote honest filing of tax returns. Based on this, it was recommended that the Nigerian government must show sincerity and transparency in the use of tax revenue and the scheme should not be implemented in isolation of other economic and tax reforms.

Download | Pages : 01-06

How to cite this article:

Osirim Monday, Gospel J Chukwu, George C Wadike. Voluntary assets and income declaration scheme (VAIDS) and tax compliance in Nigeria. International Journal of Management and Economics, Volume 3, Issue 2, 2021, Pages 01-06