CITN Organizes a Public lecture for tax Payers, tax Pratitioners in Ebonyi

By Uka Dave

The Abakaliki and District Society of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) on Tuesday organized a one day public lecture for tax Payers/Practitioners in Ebonyi State.

The public lecture was part of events marking the 40th anniversary of the society, tagged "complying with the filing requirements for personal income tax for the 2021 financial year," and was held at the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) office in Abakaliki.

The Chairman, Barrister George Ukpai FCTI, said the essence of the public lecture was to solve the problems of complying with the filing requirements for personal income by tax Payers in the State for the 2021 financial year.

"We discovered that some tax Payers do not know how to file their tax returns; they do not know how to compute their taxable income in line with the requirements of the law.

"And because of that, we felt we have a statutory duty to resolve that, that's why we've chosen this topic, complying with the filing requirement for personal income tax for the 2021 financial year". He said.

Ukpai, equally maintained that the lecture will bring to the front burner those technical issues that will improve the knowledge of the participants and consequently build their capacities. It is indeed a capacity building workshop.

He noted that  under the regime of self assessment, the tax Payer should be able to compute his taxable income on his own, and calculate the chargeable income.

The keynote speaker, Emmanuel Etim, who is the State monitor of Government Business Office, Federal Inland Revenue Service, (FIRS) In the State had earlier called on tax Payers to file their tax returns as at when due and always approach the office for informations on how to process them.

"Alternatively, they should get a tax consultant that would be a liaison with the relevant tax authorities to make the work easier for them." He said.

Meanwhile, Comrade Kenneth Effiong, the tax controller, Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Abakaliki advised tax Payers to always seek for the services of a professional in the field to enable them compute taxable income and urged the public to always comply with payment of tax.

Some of the participants, Mr James Nwogha, Mrs Eunice Ibe, commended the CITN for creating the platform for tax practitioners and regulators to share experiences with tax Payers describing their experiences as worthwhile.