Taxation and Societal Development in Nigeria: Tackling Kano’s Hidden Economy

This paper looks at taxation as a tool for societal development with a view to assessing the nature and size of Kano’s hidden economy; identify those in the hidden economy; and the appropriate approach to tackling such an economy. The survey method was used to administer questionnaire on 40 respondents to generate data which is measured on a simple majority or percentage of opinions. It was discovered that informality is a self-reported lack of tax compliance in a sample of individuals and businesses who also answered questions on a large set of issues. The study found that more tax compliance is significantly associated with adequate campaign and judicious utilization of tax funds. The paper recommends that the tax base should be expanded in order to bring the hidden economy into the tax net, the tax law shall also be simplified to get rid of ambiguity in the interpretation of its provisions.