Bill for Companies Income Tax Act Amendment.

The Senate has passed for Second Reading, a Bill for the amendment of the Companies Income Tax Act (CITA), hereafter referred to as the and for other matters connected thereto. The Bill specifically seeks to amend Sections 34, 36, 39 and 40 of the principal Act.

The proposed amendments are to encourage investments in the industrial and mining sectors of the economy in the rural areas, where ordinarily it would have been unattractive to invest. The Bill directly addresses the issues of stimulating economic activities through greater tax incentives, engendering economic development, promotion of industrialization and job creation in Nigeria.

It is the expected that an amendment of the CITA in this regard will yield many benefits, some of which are; employment generation, particularly in rural places, local manufacturing, industrialization and development of rural areas.

The Bill likewise seeks to provide a ten-year tax exemption for a new company going into business where infrastructures such as electricity, water, or tarred road are not provided by government, while companies investing in the mining and gas industries, respectively would be exempted for five years.

This Bill for amendment has been referred to the relevant Senate Committee for further legislative inputs.

Taxpayers wishing to access the existing Nigerian tax laws can do so by downloading our Tax Law App (Tax Law Book) from Google and IOS stores.