Electronic corporate tax, aggregate federally collected tax revenues and economic growth: A multivariate VAR approach

Abstract

There is the dearth of empirical evidence on the relationship between corporate tax, aggregate federally collected tax revenues and economic growth, predominantly in the post-electronic tax era. This study seeks to assess whether corporate taxes affects aggregate federally collected tax revenues and economic growth using quarterly time-series data as extracted from the official websites of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin covering during the period 2015q1-2020q1. The Multivariate Vector Auto Regression result revealed that corporate taxes positively and significantly affect aggregate federally collected tax revenue; company income tax (CIT) and economic growth (RGDP) were statistically significant while petroleum profit tax (PPT) is statistically insignificant to economic growth (RGDP). In view of this result, it is recommended that the Nigerian government should diversify measures aimed at jettisoning leakages in the administration of corporate tax, particularly petroleum profit and company income taxes since they contribute significantly to the revenue base of the country. Moreover, more measures that are stringent should be put in place to revitalize and fully automate the tax systems for improved revenue generation. The study is limited to the post-electronic tax system payment in Nigeria which was occasioned by tremendous improvements in the tax administration system in the Country.