AI And Tax: Nigeria

Technology continues to gain ground globally and affect businesses and governments alike. Nigeria, like many other countries was not sufficiently poised for the changes the digital economy brought to taxation and only tried to recover from an eroded tax base by relying on the BEPS Action Plans. Beyond the digital economy, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is quickly being imprinted in several facets of the economy with predictions that it would contribute US$15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030¹ . Internationally, the major themes in discussions surrounding AI and tax include the effect of utilising robots, labour market size, reduced income taxes, reduced public funds for social welfare systems, introduction of robot taxes² , introduction of energy taxes³ , improved tax administration in combating tax evasion and tax fraud⁴ , the legality of automated decisions⁵ and data privacy among others. It is imperative that Nigerian tax administrations, both federal and