Ascertaining Intentions of the Legislature in the Construction of Tax Statutes: Challenges for the Nigerian Judge

Abstract

In a typical Commonwealth democracy, the legislature is saddled with the responsibility to make law while the interpretation of such laws is left to the judiciary. Interpreting statutes imposes a duty on the judges to reach the correct understanding of the law and display appropriate application thereof. The task of interpreting statutes saddles the courts with the responsibility to decipher the real intention of the legislature, because without meaningful application of the law, its purpose fails. Therefore, harmonious construction of the wordings in their apposite context grammatically within the scheme, object and purpose of the legislation is sine-qua-non for effectuating the purpose of any given statute. Interpretation of tax statutes is more technical in nature because the judges are not allowed to import extraneous materials into the interpretation. It is in this regard that the researcher employed doctrinal legal research methodology to explore the task of judges in ascertaining legislative intents in the construction of tax statutes in Nigeria.