Government Tax Policy and Performance of Listed Manufacturing Firms in Nigeria: Evidence from Dynamic Panel Data Model

This study examined the influence of government corporate tax policy on the performance of 54 randomly selected listed companies that cut across 17 categories of non-financial in Nigeria over a period of 1990-2002. Using Generalised Method of Moment (GMM) and contrary to the expectation, the study found positive(1) relationship between corporate tax policy and the output performance of quoted manufacturing firms in Nigeria. This may be an indication that government revenue from corporate tax was judiciously expended on productive government expenditure most especially in Lagos State as virtually all the selected manufacturing firms have their main base in Lagos State. The study therefore recommended that Federal Government should either minimize or totally remove tax incentives, tax waivers and tax holidays to some manufacturing firms in Nigeria.