INTRODUCING PROPERTY TAXATION AND RATING AMONGST TERTIARY INSITUTIONS IN NIGERIA

Learning the fundamentals of property rating and taxation in Nigeria

An article written and compiled by Nwabuisi Dennis for the department of estate management

Introduction:

Over the years there has been an ever increasing need for the government to be able to foot public spending, provide social amenities for the people and also to improve on the standard of living f the people. This gave rise to so many questions as at how this goals and objectives can be achieved. Questions like ‘How can the money be sorted for, where is the money, how can these money be collected and how are they going to be used, who are to collect this money, how well will it be on the public that is paying this money’’. These are questions been asked by people that gave rise to the introduction of tax amongst countries of the world.

This article will help highlight the meaning and importance of taxation and rating in countries especially the third world countries and the developing countries of the world as the case may be. Nevertheless, the problems encountered in tax administration also will be pointed out alongside the solutions to these problem and recommendations on how to make it better.

Furthermore, this article will explain the meaning and needs for one to pay his tax and for countries to engage themselves in this process called taxation especially as it plays an important role in the socio economic development of a place starting from the industrial sector to the residential and commercial properties.

Taxation as a process or an art plays a vital role in real estate development in so many ways. Deep in this article, we shall find out how taxation and rating helps in improving the standard of people in the community that it is practiced and administered well. It is true that tax in Nigeria is not been monitored and controlled well unlike the other developed countries of the world as a result of bribery and corruption amongst the people in Nigeria. Poor tax administration in Nigeria has made it seem  impossible for Nigeria to be like the European countries like London, China, America etc, this is as a result of poor administration and allocation of resources realized from the process (taxation). Greed, envy and jealousy and most times inadequate use of trained personnel has also contributed to the poor tax administration in Nigeria for example.

It is also important to note that the ever increasing rise in population has given rise to higher demand for social infrastructural facilities like more roads, electricity, water, housing etc, and all these can hardly be achieved without a good tax system and administration as the case may be. Looking at the points to be evaluated in this article, one may come to realize the importance taxation especially in our country.

THE MEANING OF TAXATION:

Taxation can be defined as a system of applying levies on people by the government for the purpose of footing government spending and realization of revenue for public interest.

Taxation or Taxes can also be defined as levies or charges levied or imposed on the people or individuals, groups or organizations by the government with the aim of raising revenue to enable him foot or defray public expenses and spending.

Taxes are used as a means of the government realizing and raising revenue for public usage as we can see in the definition of taxation above. Though there are other means by which government obtain revenue and they are listed as follows;

1.                    Government obtains revenue through the administration of rent. One may ask, is government now a landlord or property owner. The answer is YES Land users and land owners according to the Land Use Act are on leasehold and the holder pays a rent called the ‘Ground Rent’ to the government and other means like shops and other through other real properties like the GRAs. Government obtains revenue through these means.

2.                   Government also obtains and realizes revenue through Fees, Licenses and Fines as the case may be. Yes, it is true that revenue is realized by government through this means. For example, Licenses like Driver’s license, Road warrants, and Sales license of some certain goods and services like gun shops, alcohol bars, and premises license etc. Fees like government agency fees paid by people to their different agencies. We can see that of fines for public law defaulters and criminals like money laundering and fraud, the crime suspects are charged by the courts and they are fined as well and this money goes to the pocket of the government which will be used to develop and defray public expenses.

To be continued....

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