Expert mulls improved tax professionals effectiveness to boost IGR

An expert in taxation has said that in order to boost Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), it is essential to improve on personal work effectiveness of tax professionals.

The Assistant Director, Personal Income Tax at the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIR), Mr. Igho Orienru, gave the charge at the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) capacity building webinar for members and associates in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, recently.

Orienru said that personal effectiveness contributes immensely in the measurement of how well one performs and how well such individual gets along with others to perform at their best consistently.

According to him, personal effectiveness is getting the best returns on your invested personal resources, adding that “It is about doing the right thing at the right time, with the right resources for the right and most beneficial results, outcomes or rewards”.

He harped on the need to keep improving personal effectiveness by making positive changes, developing and managing oneself better so as to remain relevant and be a high achiever in your place of work and in life.

Orienru further gave insights on the needed skills and knowledge required to become a high achiever and be able to positively impact others to do same.

While classifying workers into salary earners and effective workers, Orienru who is also a motivational speaker and management consultant identified traits of an effective worker to include those who focus on a clear understanding of what he/she wants to accomplish each working day.

He added that a good learner must be ready to always teach others what he/she knows while a good team player should have the ability to work within a given time frame.

Orienru urged tax professionals to avoid time-wasting and gossip in the workplace stressing that the profession desires a positive force both in the office and the larger society.

He charged them to display a visible and infectious passion for work; positive attitude and well-mannered in personal interactions with other employees and clients.

He posited that punctuality at all times to work, meetings and functions; and being high in attendance and very low in absenteeism at work, meetings and functions are crucial to personal work effectiveness.

Orienru in his paper explained that effectiveness means doing the right things, stressing that “It is the ability to achieve stated goals, judged in terms of both output and impact. It is how well an organization (and staff) set and achieve its goals”.

“It is how well an organization (and staff) set and achieve its goals. It is being able to accomplish your chosen worthwhile goals-i.e. the goals which support your personal mission/vision statements and those of your organization,” he added.

Orienru explained that effectiveness comes from taking the time to stop and evaluate, rather than running faster and faster.

Speaking on the meaning of efficiency, he said: “it means doing things right or correctly. It is the ability to perform a task very well, without wasting time, energy or resources.

In his words: “It means operating without waste or carelessness. It is a relationship between the level of performance of a job and the amount of resources used, under stated conditions.

“Efficiency”, to an organization, is the capacity to reduce cost (in time, effort, wastages, energy, money, etc) in the pursuit of defined corporate goals.”

He encouraged the tax professionals on how to apply effectiveness and efficiency, thus: “you may be very efficient at working through your to-do list and completing a lot of it.

“When you shift a bit to being effective, you may choose to delegate part of it, stop doing some of it and focus on fewer activities that will allow you to achieve your goals better. It is not anything that is effective that may be efficient and vice versa. “Effectiveness must work hand-in-hand with efficiency” at all times”.