Abstract:

The World Bank ranks Nigeria 125th out of 183 economies in the world over the cost of doing business in the country. A major parameter for this assessment is using the incidences of regulatory controls and taxation of business activity to determine the ease of doing business in Nigeria (Humphrey, 2010).Taxation is the system of raising money by making corporate organizations and individuals, whether alive or dead, pay taxes and levies. It is interesting to note that even the dead pay taxes on their investments like: dividend on shares or estate, which they leave behind, in form of capital transfer, tax on properties bequeathed by the dead to children, relatives, among others. Taxation is a compulsory extraction of money by a public authority for public purposes such as providing conducive conditions for achievement of vision 2020 goals. It is a system of raising money for the purpose of government by means of contribution from individual persons or corporate bodies (Lekan and Sunday, 2006). Even though tax payers may receive nothing identifiable in return for their contribution, they nevertheless have the benefit of living in a relatively educated and safe society (Nightingale, 1999; Nigerian Compass, 2010).