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VOL. 11, ISSUE 3 (2025)
Examining the tax liability of content creators in Nigeria; lessons from the Netherlands
Authors
C O Nwabachili, C Emenike, C C Obi-Ochiabutor
Abstract
The amount of wealth generated by a nation and
its people can serve as a tool for the measurement of the growth and
development of that nation. The researchers set out to unravel the nitty
gritty of the issues arising in the taxation of content creators in
Nigeria. Tax has been defined as a compulsory exaction of money by a public
authority for public purposes or the raising of money for the purpose of
government by means of contributions from individual persons. The emergence of
content creation especially online content creation as a result of the
development of the internet has brought with it a number of legal, fiscal and
socio-economic issues. Hence in this work the term content creators is used in
a wide sense to include both offline content creators and online content
creators who make use of social media technologies like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram,
Ttiktok, Twitter etc that lack a physical base hence making the taxation of
these persons difficult. For tax liability to arise there must be a clear link
between the charging provisions and the tax payer and given the application of
the rules of residence in taxing taxpayers it has become difficult to tax these
online content creators in light of the extant tax laws in Nigeria. This work
aims to identify the issues arising in taxation of content creators and proffer
effective solutions to remedy such revenue loss within the tax net. The
methodology adopted in this work is doctrinal method of research using analytical,
comparative, descriptive, expository and narrative approaches. Data was gotten
from primary sources such as statues and case laws and from secondary sources
such as the internet, journals, textbooks, articles and legal opinions which
are relevant to the subject matter. The findings of this research reveal the
challenges facing the enforcement and Tax assessment of content creators in
Nigeria, addressing these challenges with a view of improving the level of tax
compliance in Nigeria. This research using Netherlands as a model State
recommends the enactment of adequate laws such as the content creation
monitoring law in order to assess and better monitor the activities of content
creators with a view of tightening the tax net to avoid further leakages as it
is generally known that content creation is fast becoming a cash cow and thus
this sector cannot go further without contributing to the revenue of the
nation.
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Pages:106-115
How to cite this article:
C O Nwabachili, C Emenike, C C Obi-Ochiabutor "Examining the tax liability of content creators in Nigeria; lessons from the Netherlands". International Journal of Law, Vol 11, Issue 3, 2025, Pages 106-115
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