By MARYAM AHMADU-SUKA

Nigeria Tax Ombudsman, Dr John Nwabueze, has urged businesses and other taxpayers to seek redress through his office when they encounter unfair, unlawful or improper practices in tax and revenue administration.

Nwabueze said this on Monday in Kaduna at a stakeholder engagement on “Promoting Fairness in Tax and Revenue Administration in Nigeria.”

He said the Office of Tax Ombudsman was established under the Joint-Revenue Board of Nigeria (Establishment) Act, 2025, to provide an independent and impartial platform for resolving complaints against tax and revenue authorities.

According to him, the office handles complaints relating to taxes, levies, regulatory fees and charges, customs, excise and duties.

He said taxpayers could access the office’s mediation and conciliation services without paying any fees.

Nwabueze said the office had also deployed a digital complaints portal, case management system and toll-free call centre to facilitate access to its services.

He said tax administration should be assessed based on whether a taxpayer was liable to pay an obligation and whether the process of imposing and collecting it was fair, lawful and transparent.

“The Tax Ombudsman is not a mechanism for cancelling legitimate tax liabilities because the taxpayer does not wish to pay.

“We do not make tax policy; we do not encourage non-compliance; we do not shield taxpayers from their lawful obligations and we are certainly not a court,” he said.

He said the office was primarily concerned with operational, procedural, administrative and service-related complaints arising from tax and revenue administration.

The Ombudsman advised taxpayers to make use of the internal complaint and dispute-resolution mechanisms provided by revenue authorities before approaching his office, where such procedures were required by law.

He said effective internal mechanisms would facilitate faster resolution of disputes, reduce unnecessary litigation and strengthen trust between taxpayers and government.

Nwabueze also called for improved access to tax information and complaint-resolution services for small businesses, informal traders, rural taxpayers and persons living with disabilities.

He said complaints received by the office could provide useful information for identifying recurring challenges in the tax system and improving revenue administration.

According to him, sustainable revenue generation requires more than increased collections, stressing that fairness, accountability, efficiency, clarity and public confidence were equally important.

He urged taxpayers to fulfil their lawful obligations, understand their rights and seek appropriate redress whenever they believed that tax authorities had failed to follow due process.

Speaking, Mr Ibrahim Mohammed, Kaduna State Commissioner for Finance, said the state government recognised fairness and transparency as important factors in promoting voluntary tax compliance.

Mohammed said Kaduna generated N220 billion in tax revenue between 2023 and 2025.

According to him, this represents part of the N916 billion generated by the seven states in the North-West during the period.

He attributed the state’s revenue performance to stakeholder engagement and voluntary compliance rather than excessive enforcement.

He appealed to the Tax Ombudsman to consider establishing a zonal office in Kaduna to improve access to its services by taxpayers in the region.

The commissioner said such an office would also provide opportunity for other North-West states to benefit from Kaduna’s experience in revenue administration.

In his contribution, Alhaji Isa Mu’azu, the Special Adviser on Revenue Services, to Sokoto State government, commended the establishment of the office of the Ombudsman.

Mu’azu described the institution as an important mechanism for strengthening fairness, accountability and efficiency in tax administration.

He said improved dispute-resolution mechanisms would help deepen confidence in the tax system and promote better relations between revenue authorities and taxpayers. (NAN)