HARNESSING INTERNALLY GENERATED REVENUE: A PANACEA TO TAX EVASION AND AVOIDANCE IN NIGERIA A STUDY OF EKITI STATE OLAOYE, CLEMENT OLATUNJI, ADEBAYO, ADESODUN ISAAC & DADA, RAPHAEL ADEKOLA Department of Accounting, Faculty of Management Sciences, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria ABSTRACT This study review the internally generated revenue as a panacea to tax evasion and avoidance in Nigeria and take a critical concerned about the significance of tax evasion and avoidance which constitute a great concerned for revenue sources as a nation. A sample of fifty respondents consisting official of Ekiti state civil service commission and 25 self employed small scale enterprises who have major of their investment in Ekiti state. The gathering instrument used in the study was interview and questionnaire schedule which were co administered by the respondent and analyzed using analysis table percentage. The following findings were show that the enlighten drive of the tax payers as to the purpose or need for tax and as to tax law and legislation is not sufficient, Nigeria citizen at all level, should be educated on their civic responsibility to pay tax, either self employed, under or under wise. It is also shows that most of the tax payers especially the self employed are not keeping proper record of their business affairs which make it difficult to determine the net income. It is hereby recommended that more enlighten programme should be embarked upon for the tax payers in order to appreciate the need to pay tax. KEYWORDS: Personal Income Tax, Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE), Direct Taxation, Withholding Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Stamp Duties INTRODUCTION The word ‘tax’ first appeared in the English language only in the 14th century. It derives from the Latin tax are which means ‘to assess’. Before that, English used the related word ‘task’, derived from Old French. For a while, ‘task’ and ‘tax’ were both in common use, the first requiring labour, the second money. ‘Tax’ then developed its meaning to imply something wearisome or challenging. So words like ‘duty’ were used to suggest a more appealing purpose. Political spin has just as long a history as taxation, and neither has been detained unduly by the meaning of words (new internationalist magazine issue 416). According to Olatunji, Olaleye and Adesina (2001) they emphasized that during the pre- colonia era, taxation functioned principally on ethnic basis i.e Hausa Yoruba and Igbo. Such taxes are inform of owo ori, isakole war returns community effort (south western area), egbu-nkwu community effort (eastern area) and zakat, kurdin kasa, shukka- shukka (northern area). According to Olajide and Associate (2012), The history of taxation in the world, which Nigeria is an integral part, is dated back to the pre-Christ era. Prior to independence, the Emirs, Obas and Obis collected various taxes. The tax administers then was the Emirs', Obas' and Obis' agents. Adesina (2005) posited that ‘’ taxation entered into corpus of our formal law during the colonial era, distinctly bore the stamp of the colonial master- great Britain. form earliest time, the British monarchy had considered it much easier to raise state dues by imposition of indirect taxes, such as custom excise duties. According to Chinabuye on internet link (2013), In Nigeria, the taxation system dates back to 1904 when the personal income tax was introduced in northern Nigeria before the unification of the country by the colonial masters. It was later implemented through the Native Revenue Ordinances to the western and eastern regions in 1917 and 1928, BEST: International Journal of Management, Information Technology and Engineering (BEST: IJMITE) ISSN 2348-0513 Vol. 2, Issue 3, Mar 2014, 53-72 © BEST Journals