Personal income tax administration in Nigeria: challenges and prospects for increased revenue generation from self employed persons in the society

The success achieved by Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in meeting the targets set for its integrated tax offices nationwide is no doubt a challenge to its state counterparts. Personal income tax that is supposed to be paid by self-employed individuals in Nigeria constitutes a major source of revenue accruable to various state government of the nation. Unfortunately, the correct assessment and collection of taxes from these groups of taxpayers remains a mirage due to myriad of factors. Prominent among these factors is the failure of majority to register with revenue authority as revealed in this study. This paper therefore recommends various strategies that can be adopted by government to bring numerous self employed persons in the society to pay taxes which can impact positively on increased revenue generation and quantity and quality of infrastructure provided by the government.