1.1 Introduction
Taxation management provides freeform creation of Taxation controls that will be applied to orders. Access Taxation management, the 'Taxation management' link in the administration link list. Note that only administrators and order managers will have access to Taxation management software. Any number of Taxation controls can be created. Each Taxation control has conditions and charges. If an order fits the conditions set in the Taxation rules, the order will be subject to the charges. If an order qualifies for more than one Taxation control, the order would be subject to the charges for all the qualifying Taxation controls. This flexibility is necessary, not only due to the variability of Taxation rates, but also the conditions changing and individual company Taxation perspective.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Tariff is a compulsory levy imposed on the income/profits of an individual, partnership and corporate organizations for the financing of government expenditure without recourse to a corresponding benefit from Tariff payer. Every Tariff imposed on Nigerian companies or organizations needs continual interpretation of its specific application and effect on the various transaction of the organization. The field of taxation changes every moment or every day as announced by the new ruling courts and also as are being made by new government.
The effect of tariff management software is the inability of remitting cheques/cash payment of tariff this comes about when a bank collects FIRS cheques/cash and refuses to remit out rightly. Here the money is diverted for use by the bank forever. Tariff Management Software has been in existence years ago but, there are some drawbacks associated with the existing tariff management software and has led to tariff diversion, and with the use of manual process of tariff collection has led to lengthy queue in Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) which also led in the delay of TIN (Tariff Identification Number) collection.
Tariff management system is used to detect and maintain Tariff database of previous years. Track and manage new construction information including Issuing refunds and display Tariff payer refund information. This work targets the monitoring, managing and organizing of individuals, partners and company Tariff payment and maximizes the security for the organization or corporate body.
With the rising adoption of ICT and the numerous benefits it offers, virtually every sector of endeavor is taking advantage of it to improve their daily operations. Tax payment is very important as it provides revenue for the government to develop the society, however, without the use of computer technologies to aid tax payment, it will be difficult to manage payments. Since it is obvious that this challenge can be overcome using the right ICT technology, revenue management services such as the Federal Inland Revenue Service of Nigeria has adopted the idea of utilizing ICT to better manage tax payment operations. For effective implementation, it is important that the features and operations of an electronic taxation system be well understood and this forms the background of the study.
1.3 Statement of Problem
For many countries all over the world including Nigeria, it is difficult to manage tax payments as there had been no system to effectively monitor the payments of taxes so as to determine who is defaulting tax payments and who is not. Also, tax payers find it difficult to pay taxes due to administrative bottlenecks and long queues. Consequently, due to the problems the total revenue gotten from tax payments is below expectation because of the lack of an operational and well interconnected electronic tax payment system. It is in view of this situation that this research work is carried out as an attempt to implement an e-taxation system.
The following are the specific problems of the research work;
- Inadequate government regulation on collection system
- Lack of transparency on the part of the Tariff administrators.
- Frauds committed by both F.R.S staff and collecting agents.
- Delay in remitting Tariffs collected and in some cases outright diversion of Tariffs collected.
- There is no proper accountability of the amount collected by various agents by the government and this brings about apathy among the Tariff payers.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to design and implement an e-taxation system. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To develop a workable e-taxation system
- To showcase the concept of e-taxation
- To present the need for an e-taxation system
- To showcase the features of an e-taxation system
- To present the benefits of an e-taxation system
- To present the limitations of an e-taxation system
1.5 Significance of Study
The significance of the study is that it will bring to light the relevance of an e-taxation system that will facilitate the operations of Federal Inland Revenue Services, Uyo in the collection and updating of tax records. The research study will also serve as a useful reference material to other scholars and researchers seeking for related information on the subject of e-taxation.
This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.6 Scope of Study
This study covers the design and implementation of an E-Taxation system using Federal Inland Revenue service, Uyo, Akwa Ibom state as a case study.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).
1.8 Definition of Terms
Tax: It is a compulsory levy imposed by a government on its citizens and used to run the government and finance projects.
Levies: Money raised under government authority.
Duties: These are taxes levied on imported or exported goods
Fees: These are charges made by government institutions and sometimes for services rendered.
Tax authority: Refers to the relevant agency with authority to collect tax on behalf of the federal government
Tax payer: Refers to the individual or organization paying tax on behalf of its employees
Service providers: Refer to system providers who own the technical infrastructure
CIFTS: Central Bank Inter-bank Funds transfer
RTGS: Real Time Gross Settlement System
NEFT: National Electronic Funds Transfer
NIBSS: Nigeria Interbank Settlement System
Tax amount: The amount of tax due to be paid by the tax payer
Due Date: The date the tax is due for payment
TRC: Tax reference code refers to the code used by your employer to calculate the amount of tax to deduct from your pay.
TIN: Tax identification number is a unique 14 digit (or any specified digit) sequential number generated electronically as part of the registration process and assigned to a tax payer, company, enterprise or individual for identification.
