CHAPTER ONE
1.0    INTRODUCTION
1.1    BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Development is a dream of every individual, group or organization and even the government. At every point in time, there must be a significant growth and development in people’s lives. This can be achieved individually and/collectively.
In the struggle for development in the society, the tier of government closer to the people; the local government, takes up the responsibility of the people to a certain level. To achieve the objectives of this responsibility, enough revenue is needed to plan, execute, and maintain facilities and infrastructures. Enough fund is needed for the wellbeing of the people in terms of accessible roads, building of public schools, health care centers, and construction of bridges, market, and portable water supply among others. Such funds can be generated from taxes, royalties, haulages, fines and grants from states, national and international governments.
Hence, the local government cannot start, execute and maintain these projects and other responsibilities without adequate revenue generation and this is the main reason why development is only superficial at some Local Government councils in Nigeria. Though the state and federal government allocate funds or even embark on some projects that develop local governments indirectly; this cannot be enough for a fast growth and development of a local government. Personal efforts need to be made by the local government to improve their poor revenue generation.
Revenue generation in Nigeria local governments is principally derived from tax. Tax is a compulsory levy imposed by government on individuals and companies for the various legitimate function of the state (Olaoye, 2008). Tax is a necessary ingredient for civilization. The history of man has shown that man has to pay tax in one form or the other that is either in cash or in kind, initially to his chieftain and later on a form of organized government (Ojo, 2003). No system or rules can be effective whether foreign or nature unless it enjoys some measures of financial independence. Local governments in Nigeria have developed over a number of years. Historically, the development of direct taxation in local government in Nigeria can be traced the British pre-colonial period Under this period, community taxes were levied on communities (Rabiu, 2004) recently the revenue that accrues to local government is derived from two broad sources, viz the external sources and the internal source An effective Local Government system rests majorly on the availability of human and material resources which the nation could mobilize and harness for local governments development. In 1976, the Federal Military Government then issued guidelines on local governments reforms. The reforms which gave recognition to local governments as the third tier of government whereby government activities at the local level were taken care of. In 1988, another reform of local government was established. This gave a substantial and unprecedented reform of autonomy to the local governments in the country. With this autonomy, greater responsibilities devolved on the local government therefore, became a common knowledge that most of the local government are finding it difficult to cope with the present level of responsibilities.