LEGAL RESPONSES TO TAX EVASION AND AVOIDANCE IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Tax evasion and avoidance are both phenomena that are probably as old as taxation itself. Wherever and whenever authorities decide to levy taxes, individuals and firms try to avoid paying them. Though this problem has always been present, it becomes more pressing in the course of globalization as this process extends the range of opportunities to circumvent taxation while simultaneously reducing the risk of being detected. Tax evasion and tax avoidance are practices that have eaten deeply into the revenue that ought to be generated by the government, and hence affect the economic life of the country as a whole, in view of this, this paper seeks to examine the issue of tax evasion and avoidance in Nigeria, its effects on the tax system and the efforts of the legislature and the judiciary aimed at curbing the menace of tax evasion and avoidance in Nigeria.