Abstract:
The reasons behind the carrying out of this research is to critically
examine and find out whether there exists income tax evasion and
avoidance in Nigeria and also to outline the impact on total generated
revenue from taxation. The establishment of the problems inherent in
the study led to the establishment of the objective of the study.
In Nigeria, before the discovery of oil in its large quantity, agricultural
products were the major source of revenue; but new, it is worthy to
say that taxation is the second source of revenue generation.
It then means that Nigerian government could get all that they are
supposed to in these sources especially taxation, which they will be
able to carry out it’s politically, economic and other functions as
expected. Unfortunately, the reverse is the case considering that the
revenue generated from taxation is tow having in mind that taxation
is our focus in this project.
In carrying out this study, the survey research method was used tn
which questionnaire was the tool used for the collection of data. A
total of 409 questionnaires were distributed out of which 35.5 were
returned, and analyzed using the mean response score and 95
percent confidence level applied.
The major findings from this study were that tax evasion and
avoidance have affected the revenue generated from taxes
negatively. Another finding was that taxpayers in Nigeria adopt
various methods to evade and avoid the payment of taxes. Moreover,
the highest methods adopted by tax defaulters are bribing/ conniving
with tax officials and running away/ hiding from tax agents
