Finance Bill: FG to Exempt SMEs from Income Tax

• Finance Bill: FG to Exempt SMEs from Income Tax

The Federal Government through the new Finance Bill will exempt Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with annual turnover below N25 million from paying Income Tax, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed has stated.

According to the minister, the new Finance Bill, once signed into law, would protect small businesses and compel businesses with over N100 million annual turnover to pay 30 per cent of their profit as Company Income Tax, while companies with a turnover between N25 million and N100 million will only pay 20 per cent.

“Our assessment is that any business that has a turnover of less than N25m needs that break, not being taxed so they can invest in their businesses. And we reduced the tax for medium-size businesses from 30 per cent to 20 per cent so they can have more resources that they can plough back in their business. These are the largest employers of labour. The federal and state governments have a total labour force of less than one per cent of the population.

“Not only will small businesses be able to do more because they are not paying taxes, but we are also working together with the trade authorities to also encourage people in the informal sector to become formalise because they will see other businesses like them that are not registered doing well.

“Their productivity will increase, they will employ more Nigerians and at the end of the day, they will grow to the level of a medium-size business and begin to pay revenue,” Ahmed said.

Ahmed, however, said she was disappointed with Nigerians for focusing just on the Value Added Tax aspect of the bill. She explained that the Finance Bill will help grow the real sector, enhance job creation and deepen economic productivity.