Net Tax Returns on Equity Investment of Businesses in Nigeria: A Comparative Evaluation Using Equations

Abstract

For effective tax planning for the purpose of tax burden shedding, it is imperative for equity investors to understand the tax implications and intricacies of their investments so as to minimize the incidence of tax thereby  maximizing net tax returns on investment and the aggregate wealth accumulation of the business. The study therefore seeks to compare the net tax returns on equity investment in unincorporated and incorporated businesses in Nigeria.  The essence is to determine the form of business organization that has the highest tax return (lesser tax burden).  Scholes & Wolfson (1992) model, which was also applied by Okafor & Akwu (2015), was adopted with little modification for the purpose of this study to determine the maximum net tax returns of investments in both forms of businesses.  Findings from the  computations in Table 5.1  below clearly indicate that individual businesses is the best form of investment for the purpose of gaining net tax advantage and net tax wealth aggregation in Nigeria (2.38 for 5 years, 5.69  for 10 years & 13.59 for 15 years). This is followed by incorporated companies (2.24 for 5 years, 5.02 for 10 years & 11.23 for 15 years) and the third is upstream companies (domestic sales of crude) (1.51 for 5 years, 2.27 for 10 years  & 3.34 for 15 years. Upstream companies (exported crude) occupied the last position in the ladder of investment for after-tax wealth accumulation (1.20 for 5 years, 1.44 for 10 years & 1.74 for 15 years).Chains of factors and conditions may be responsible for this result including the issue of double taxation, which may not be applicable to individual business but much visible with  incorporated companies. Besides, the applicable tax rates varies and the computation is based on various tax rates regime of which  individual businesses has upper band of 24%,  a single rate of 30% for incorporated companies,  85% petroleum  profit tax rates for exported crude for upstream firms and 65.75% for domestic sales for upstream firms. Also, there is a stringent regulation of incorporated companies more than unincorporated individual businesses and a more stringent regulation of companies operating in the upstream petroleum sector. The study therefore recommends that equity investors should carefully consider tax and non-tax factors while evaluating the net tax burden or the relative tax advantages of what forms of business to choose.  This consideration would enable investors to get net tax wealth accumulation in both short and long gestation period of investments.

Keywords: Net tax returns, equity investment, tax burden, net tax wealth aggregation

DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/11-35-06

Publication date: December 31^st 2019