The Legal Impact and Relevance of using the Concept of Plea Bargain in Resolving Tax Dispute in Nigeria

Abstract

The essence of the introduction of taxes by the government is to generate revenue in providing basic facilities for society. However, it has been observed that most taxpayers often evade tax liability or default in tax compliance; hence, tax authority often resulted in quasi-criminal litigation to recover tax liability. It suffices to state that the process involved in prosecuting tax defaulters or recovery tax liabilities is often strenuous, cumbersome, and bureaucratic. Furthermore, it often results from delaying and not a friendly approach, hence the need for plea bargains in prosecuting tax cases that involved tax liability. Given this, the study made use of online questionnaires sent to 321 respondents (randomly selected) residing within the Federal Republic of Nigeria in ascertaining the usefulness and preference of using the concept of a plea bargain in resolving a tax liability. Descriptive and analytical statistics were used to analyse the data generated from the questionnaire. The study found that plea bargain is a viable prosecutorial tool in resolving tax offences or recovering tax liability. The study therefore concluded and recommended that instead of using the quasi-criminal litigation in resolving tax offences or recovering tax liability, the concept of plea bargain should be used as it is faster in recovering tax liability, less bureaucratic, and amicable.