Tony Elumelu, Chairman and founder of Heirs Holdings has revealed that the average Nigerian business pays 48 taxes. The UBA Chairman who decried the plight of the average Nigerian entrepreneur, saying that an average business was a local government authority providing his own electricity, water and waste disposal method, called for a far-reaching tax reforms and an urgent need to pass the executive tax bill.
Tony Elumelu who revealed that the average Nigerian business pays 48 taxes while delivering a keynote address at the 21st annual tax conference of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria on Thursday, added that the government should make life easier for Small and Medium Enterprises by creating favourable tax policies that will support them. He called on the government to eliminate the regime of multiple taxation.
He said, “Until there is a reduction in what SMEs pay as tax, elimination of multiple taxation, the abolition of minimum income tax and excess dividend tax, it will be difficult for us to attract investors into this country, and it will be difficult for us to retain the ones already in the country. It will be difficult for us to mobilise our SMEs to help create employment that we need so much in this country. The average number of taxes businesses pay in Nigeria is 48, compared to 33 in other sub-Saharan countries. In Hong Kong, it’s just three. Multiple taxation remains a significant burden for SMEs and corporates operating in the country.”
