By Adebayo Olufemi Salako, ACA

The responsibility of collecting taxes is that of the government while the citizens who pay such taxes reserve the right to total accountability from the government.

The concept of citizenship refers to the state of being vested with the rights, privileges, and duties of a citizen one of which is paying taxes and demanding accountability (the right to know) – to put these in the simplest of terms.

Public service and tax administration demand commitment to Integrity, Honesty, Objectivity, and Fairness. It should be known that tax administration is about more than just raising revenue. Increase in tax rates raises a corresponding demand for government accountability and this would in turn lead to better governance. This is a critical area of research that is key in fostering accountability in tax administration.

Indications of a good tax system

A good tax system must be easy to understand and equitable. There must be clarity. This enhances compliance on the part of the taxpayers. It must be fair to all – whether the government adopts the progressive or a fixed rate system of taxation. A progressive tax system assesses more taxes as income increases while a fixed tax rate system adopts a flat tax rate on all taxpayers. There must also be an avenue to ask questions and to receive prompt response. In other words, there must be sincerity of purpose on the part of the government. This would engender a willingness to comply from the citizenry.

Taxpayers must know that paying taxes is a civic responsibility. This is achieved through campaigns and awareness programs to educate people on taxation. Rather than coerce, this will further raise awareness and tax collection and administration will become easy. The cost of administering and collecting these taxes is reduced and more funds, as a result, are available to run the activities of government.

Taxes must also be easy to collect. The system of collection and administration must be very robust. A system wherein taxpayers voluntarily submit themselves for tax assessment and payment should be the goal of any tax system or that of the agency that administers revenue collection. In fact, taxpayers in advanced nations of the world have embraced self-assessment and remittance.

There must an effective mechanism for citizens to measure the impact of the taxes they pay. This should be a no-brainer. As a taxpayer, you would want to see and feel the impact of parting with a portion and in most times, substantial part of your hard-earned money. When citizens see that infrastructures are built, the education system works, security is assured, the healthcare system is top-notch, and then the government can justify tax collection and even increase tax rates or introduce new tax regimes.

The measuring mechanism must be open to citizens to assess and appraise. The government must consistently make revenue and expenditures easily accessible to the person they govern. Transparency is key to effective tax administration. This is called accountability. It is required and necessary. The government, though powerful, must understand that they are stewards. Accountability is required of stewards. Citizens must be put in the know on how government revenues are being spent.

An economy can only thrive if it has a functional tax system. A nation’s development depends on the efficiency of the tax system. Revenues from taxation are a major source of revenue for many nations in the world. These revenues enable the government to maintain law and order, build and maintain infrastructure and perform its other numerous obligations to its populace.

An accountable government earns the confidence of its people and will be able to effectively administer tax collection. This will bring to bear ease in revenue collection. Taxpayers will yield more to paying without necessarily adopting the use of coercion. The government will effectively have more funds available to execute projects, meet the needs of the governed and be able to deal with contingencies like natural disasters, wars and pandemic as we are experiencing in our world today.