Major changes introduced by the 2019 Finance Act
The Finance Act 2019 recently signed into law by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria came into effect on 1 February 2020. The Act introduced the much needed changes to Nigeria’s tax and fiscal laws for various strategic purposes, particularly to enable enough funding of the 2020 budget. Other objectives include:
• Promote fiscal equity by mitigating instances of regressive taxation;
• Reform domestic tax laws to align with global best practices;
• Introduce tax incentives for investments in infrastructure and capital markets;
• Support small business in line with the on-going ease of doing business reforms; and
• Raise revenue for the three tiers of government, by various fiscal measures, including increase in VAT rate from 5% to 7.5%.
