Chapter One
Introduction
- Background
A web-based system refers to an application or service that is resident on a server and is accessible using a Web browser. It is accessible from anywhere in the world via the Web. A web-based system can be used to conduct tax assessment in any particular state or country. The aim of the present study is to develop a web-based system for tax assessment of private sector assets. Examples of these assets are land, heavy equipment, light equipment, motor/vehicle, residential building, commercial building, and industrial building etc. The web-based system will contain all the information about the private sector assets for tax assessment. It will enable the registration and assessment of all the assets of the private sector establishment in a particular area for tax payment.
The web-based system enables a client to register his/her business. After registration, an acknowledgement page (slip) will be displayed in another page with the inscription “Registration Successful”. The user is expected to printout the slip as an evidence of registration. It enables the client to conduct a tax evaluation of his assets. After the evaluation, a tax invoice will automatically be generated on a new page. The client is expected to print out the tax invoice and proceed to a designated bank for tax payment. The web-based system enables the client to view the list of officially designated banks for tax payment. It enables a client to view the list of tax offices where a client can go for the conversion of bank teller to receipt after he has already paid in the bank. It also enables a client to view the list of existing business firms in the area covered by the web-based system.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Some of the problems that necessitated this study are:
- The piles and stack of files to be processed makes work drudgery in tax offices.
- Delay in completing manual tax assessment due to so many processes and complexity of procedures involved.
- Time consumed or time wasted in retrieving records (i.e searching for records) in tax offices.
- The method of updating files in tax offices makes the exercise cumbersome and boring.
1.3 Objective of the Study
To develop a system that should be able to
- Provide documentation for updating and retrieval of data about taxable private sector assets.
- Give accurate and timely information for management decision making.
- Provide facilities for quick access to stored data giving at random analysis to assist management functions.
- Eliminate manual filing systems, tedious and repetitive classical work and provide a safer way of preserving documents in tax offices.
- Speed up the processes of assessing the private sector assets for tax payment.
- Enable clients to easily evaluate their assets online and know the amount involved for tax payment.
1.4 Significance of the Study
With the successful development of a web-based tax assessment system for private sectors assets for tax payment, there will be a tremendous changes and improvement in the taxation system in all ramifications such as:
- Clients’ records are compiled and preserved in files in tax offices. These files are stacked in piles indiscriminately making file processing difficult. With this system in place, the era of piles and stack of files for tedious manual processing would come to an end as all the processes can now be carried out automatically and at ease with the aid of a web-based system.
- Previously, tax assessment involves a lot of hectic procedures. Some officers who serve as field workers have to visit business premises in the town one by one to collect information about their assets in a bid to use the data for tax assessment. With the aid of a web-based system, there would be no more delay in finishing the tax assessment as the procedure would now become very simple.
- In the past, retrieval of clients’ record for tax assessment or any other official purpose in the tax offices in a difficult thing to do because some official documents containing information about clients may have either be misplaced or disappeared. With the utilization of a web-based system, there would be no more waste of time in retrieving clients’ records because it is done automatically with the aid of a system.
- Method of updating files is burdensome in the past. But with the advent of a web-based system, the method of updating file will no longer be cumbersome, but very simple and records can be easily accessed, inserted or deleted.
- In the past, it is impossible for clients to evaluate their assets. They are at the mercy of tax officers who exploit them as they write any amount of money they like and ask the clients to pay as tax for their assets without any justification. With the arrival of a web-based system, the trend has change as clients can easily evaluate their assets online from different places to know the amount involved for tax payment.