A tax consultant, Gabriel Oluwasola, says there is no hidden place for anyone to evade tax under the new tax law.
Mr Oluwasola said this on Thursday while speaking with journalists at a Hyper Master Class Conference and Gala Award Night, organised by the Clean Ace Foundation at the Providence Hotel, Lagos.
“To me, the new tax law does not favour the high-network individuals because they are the ones who will help us to run this country. They are going to pay more taxes.
“The beautiful thing is that low-income earners have nothing to suffer. As per fiscalisation, a technologically-driven system we are now operating, there is no hidden place for anybody to evade tax,” he said.
Mr Oluwasola, who is also a managing partner of FINGOAL Consulting, described the new tax law as good despite some issues.
“The fact remains that the tax law favours low-income earners because if you are a small company, you are exempt from all forms of taxes. I think that is one of the beautiful things about our economy growing rapidly. If I operate a business and my annual turnover is below N100 million, I don’t have to stress myself with tax obligations.
“Whatever profit I make at the end of the year, I can roll it over in order to improve my efficiency and in order to increase my income and also help the economy by employing more staff. That will stimulate economic growth. For individuals, when you earn within the range of N800,000 and below, you are fully exempted,” he said.
Mr Oluwasola said that paying taxes remained an obligation.
“We have to tell ourselves the truth: taxes are a civil obligation. We have to fulfil our own social contract before we can ask government questions. Failure to do so means we are not helping the economy,” he said.
The founder of CleanAce Foundation, Eniibukun Adebayo, said the aim of the conference was to foster more inclusive conversations that would help businesses grow.
Mr Adebayo said that the conference helped develop strategies to ensure businesses would grow and people could take bold decisions to take their businesses to the next level.
Lagos’ commissioner for wealth creation and employment, Bankole Ajigbotafe, said the dry-cleaning and laundry subsector occupied an important place in the state’s wealth-creation and employment ecosystem.
Mr Ajigbotafe said that the dry cleaning business contributed significantly to service delivery and job creation.
(NAN)
