What are the principles of good and effective tax system?
Basically there are four canons by which taxation falls to be judged as a fiscal instrument. They include efficiency in raising revenue, equity between one taxpayer and another and intelligibility to the payers. What that means is that the tax law should not be complicated for people to understand. There should be administrative simplicity in any good tax policy – the cost of administering tax should be simple. There should be convenience of payment and collection. The amount to be paid by the people paying taxes should be equal to their incomes. There should be no uncertainty with regard to the amount to be paid. The tax assessment should not be arbitrary. Economy should be observed so that taxes should not be more than the cost of collection. In Nigeria, the overall responsibility for tax administration lies with the Federal Inland Revenue Service and state Board of Internal Revenue. In addition to being responsible for the administration of taxation, they also advise the Ministy of