KPMG urges tax relief for SMEs

Granting tax relief to new businesses will improve the economy, the Associate Director, Tax, Regulatory, & People Services, KPMG,Mrs Ehile Adetola Aibangbee, has said.
Mrs Aibangbee said more new businesses could be helped to  get off the ground through pioneer tax status  boosting  growth and transforming  the economy.
Mrs Aibangbee said  more startups could flourish while more entrepreneurs take advantage of the pioneer status incentive which enables a company to make reasonable levels of profit within its formative years or initial period of expansion.
Earlier,while addressing  Fate Foundation’s  Alumni Knowledge Building Session in Lagos, she  said there are many  incentives available to encourage investment that small businesses were not taking advantage of, adding that the government has done a lot to  support the growth of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sector through tax incentives.
She, however, noted that the need to harmonise taxes between the states and local government councils to prevent multi taxations citing examples such as land use taxes collected by both the state and local government councils.

She said enforcement and compliance by all the levels of government agencies would make the harmonisation structure beneficial to the economy.
According to her, the government faces major constraints in its efforts to enhance revenue collection as a large number of SMEs are not paying their taxes.
She said SMEs that are registered are  finding  it very difficult to fulfil tax obligations due to the complexity of the regulations.
Mrs Aibangbee warned small business owners to expect new taxes as a way to raise money to implement the budget.
Apart from the personal income, sales taxes, company income taxes,she said government was going to introduce mansion and road taxes.
She reiterated that the government is going to rely heavily on the tax sector for its revenue.

Source- thenatioonlineng.net