Abstract:

Tax reforms is a multifaceted and rapidly evolving phenomenon in taxation of any economy. As public expenditure projections increase due to infrastructural deficits, excessive population growth, and rural-urban migration, the need to raise funds for economic sustainability; raises a question on how government mobilises and raises the bar of revenue to keep pace with global best practices in public finance. In Nigeria, for example, the government is the largest and active promoter of education. The government is involved in providing primary, secondary, and tertiary education for the citizenry. In recent times, individuals and religious organisations are becoming more active in providing quality education. Government institutions are overstretched because of the increasing number of persons interested in going to university. Therefore, there is a need for more funds to expand the existing institutions and build more to accommodate other students. The government, therefore, needs used income from taxes and non-taxes sources to fund education and other social services.

Tax reforms major aim is to boost the country's government revenue with the overall view to offset the budget deficit. It must be noted that since 1956, when commercially viable oil was discovered in Nigeria, the country's economic tides have shifted unfavourably as a result of the country's over-reliance on oil revenue to fund its significant capital and recurrent expenditures. It is believed that proper funding of institutions in Nigeria will allow government-owned institutions to give quality education to their citizenry. The study reviewed relevant articles from credible and reputable scientific databases on the subject matter. Some credible sources of articles include OARE, Scopus, SCIVAL among others. The information gathered from the literature were conceptually discussed in line with the specific objective of the study. The findings from the study shows that the government drive for tax reforms can improve the standards of higher institutions in Nigeria.

Tax reforms analysis has helped the government focus on objective evaluation and appraisals of revenue adequacy, simplicity, equity, and economy of efficiency. Nigeria's tax system must contribute to the overall well-being of Nigerians by ensuring enough tax revenue mobilisation and collection by the government, which has a significant potential impact on citizenry sustainability. The accomplishment of this process evolves through judicious and proper revenue utilisation collected by relevant tax agencies on behalf of the government. Further to this, a certain number of objectives that tax reforms in the country seeks to achieve are highlighted hereunder: promotion of accountability and fiscal responsibility, to facilitate development and economic growth, provision of resource adequacy for economic financing, to address inequality in income distribution, provision of economic stabilisation. If all these are achieved, providing quality education will not challenge the government.

The Theory of benefit received and expediency theory serves as this study's theoretical underpinning. Therefore, efforts must be intensified by the government and the management of the institutions of higher learning to explore tax reforms for the advancement of higher education in Nigeria. Harnessing tax reforms will aid the operational delivery of the institutions.

Keywords:

Tax reforms, Revenue, Higher education, Performance of higher institutions.