Tax Reforms, Digitalization and Government Revenue in Nigeria

Abstract

In Nigeria, tax income collection has become a crucial policy goal for the government. The influence of tax reforms and digitalization on government income in Nigeria is therefore investigated. The study focuses on evaluating the distributional outcomes of tax revenue and digitalization on both federal and state government revenues. An ex post facto research design was adopted in the study and both descriptive and inferential analysis of the hypothesized relationships was performed. The relationships are analyzed using secondary data from 1996 to 2020 and a dynamic framework based on the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration. The study confirmed that company income tax reforms improved federal government revenues but inhibited state government revenues (SGR) in Nigeria. It is therefore recommended that the conduct of fiscal reforms in Nigeria should evolve to become more of a bottom–top approach where all tiers of government are included.