Abstract

Taxation is the imposition of mandatory fees on people or organisations, typically supported by legal mandates from governments worldwide. The main purpose of taxes is to create revenues for the government and raise funds for spending. The process of computing, accessing, and collecting taxes using electronic methods is known as electronic taxation. The Finance Act 2020, specifically Section 25 of the FIRS Establishment Act, as well as the Finance Act 2020, confer upon the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) the authority to leverage technology in automating tax administration processes, including assessment, collection, and information gathering. It will be intriguing to observe how the Finance Act 2023 reinforces this provision. Notably, the Finance Act 2023 has amended the FIRS Establishment Act to enable the FIRS to utilize third-party technology in automating tax administration. The increasing digitalization of tax administration systems, coupled with the preference for technological deployment in tax management, return filing, and tax payment in Nigeria and globally, has rendered the tax system susceptible to cybercrime, thereby giving rise to a novel category of criminal activity known as cyber tax crimes. The report noted the expansion of tax crimes to include cyber tax crimes in light of Nigeria's implementation of Electronic Taxation and the provisions of the Cybercrimes Act 2015 (as amended).