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Effect of Taxation Practical Exercises on Tax Computation Skills among Accounting Education Students in Nigeria

Abstract

Taxation is an important component of accounting education because accounting professionals require practical skills to compute tax liabilities, apply tax laws, classify taxable and non-taxable items, determine allowable deductions, and prepare accurate tax computations for individuals and business organizations. Accounting education students need practical competence in applying taxation principles to realistic financial situations rather than relying solely on theoretical knowledge and memorized tax rules. However, conventional approaches to teaching taxation may emphasize lectures, textbook examples, and routine examination questions without providing sufficient opportunities for students to apply tax principles to practical tax computation situations. Taxation Practical Exercises provide students with structured opportunities to analyse income and expenditure information, apply relevant tax rules, calculate taxable income, determine tax liabilities, and prepare tax computations. Against this background, this study investigates the effect of taxation practical exercises on tax computation skills among accounting education students in Nigeria. The study will be anchored on Experiential Learning Theory, Constructivist Learning Theory, and Mastery Learning Theory. Experiential Learning Theory emphasizes learning through concrete experience, reflection, conceptualization, and active experimentation, providing a suitable framework for students' engagement with practical taxation activities. Constructivist Learning Theory emphasizes active participation, prior knowledge, problem-solving, and the construction of knowledge through meaningful learning experiences. Mastery Learning Theory emphasizes repeated practice, formative assessment, corrective feedback, and opportunities for learners to achieve clearly defined competencies. Collectively, these theoretical perspectives provide a suitable framework for explaining how taxation practical exercises may influence students' tax computation skills. The study will adopt a quantitative quasi-experimental or analytical cross-sectional research design. The study population will comprise undergraduate accounting education students enrolled in selected public and private universities across Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique will be used to select geopolitical zones, states, universities, faculties or departments, levels of study, and eligible accounting education students. Taxation practical exercises will be assessed using indicators such as frequency of practical exercises, computation of taxable income, classification of assessable income, identification of exempt income, treatment of allowable and disallowable expenses, determination of adjusted profit, capital allowances, loss relief, personal income tax computation, company income tax computation, withholding tax, value-added tax, education tax where applicable, tax credits and reliefs, tax liability determination, tax planning scenarios, preparation of tax computations, use of current tax legislation, case-based exercises, spreadsheet-based activities, tax computation software, lecturer guidance, feedback, and opportunities for repeated practice. Students' tax computation skills will be assessed using indicators such as accurate identification of taxable income, classification of taxable and non-taxable items, application of relevant tax rules, computation of adjusted and taxable profit, treatment of allowable and disallowable expenses, calculation of capital allowances, application of loss relief provisions, computation of personal and company tax liabilities, treatment of withholding tax and value-added tax, application of relevant reliefs and credits, preparation of tax computation statements, interpretation of tax information, identification and correction of computation errors, numerical accuracy, analytical reasoning, and ability to solve unfamiliar tax computation problems. Data will be collected using structured questionnaires, standardized tax computation skills tests, practical taxation tasks, realistic tax scenarios, case studies, spreadsheet exercises, competency-based assessment rubrics, observation checklists, and pre-test and post-test assessments where a quasi-experimental design is adopted. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize students' demographic and academic characteristics, taxation learning experiences, practical exercise exposure, and levels of tax computation skills. Inferential statistical techniques, including chi-square tests, paired and independent t-tests, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis where appropriate, will be used to determine the effect of taxation practical exercises on students' tax computation skills. Where a quasi-experimental design is adopted, tax computation skill scores before and after exposure to taxation practical exercises may be compared with those of a comparison group receiving conventional taxation instruction to determine changes associated with the intervention. Diagnostic tests will also be conducted to assess the reliability, validity, and robustness of the findings. The study is expected to find that taxation practical exercises have a significant positive effect on tax computation skills among accounting education students in Nigeria. Students who regularly engage in structured taxation practical exercises are expected to demonstrate stronger abilities to identify taxable income, classify allowable and disallowable expenses, calculate adjusted profit, apply capital allowances and reliefs, determine tax liabilities, and prepare accurate tax computations than students exposed primarily to conventional lecture-based instruction. Practical exercises may help students understand how taxation principles operate in real financial situations and improve their ability to apply changing tax rules to practical cases. Exposure to realistic individual and corporate tax scenarios may strengthen students' numerical accuracy, analytical reasoning, problem-solving abilities, attention to detail, and confidence in tax computation. Case-based exercises involving business income, employment income, investment income, allowable deductions, capital allowances, tax reliefs, and tax liabilities may improve students' ability to apply taxation principles to unfamiliar situations. Spreadsheet-based and tax-computation software activities may further strengthen students' digital competence and ability to process complex tax information efficiently. However, frequent changes in tax legislation, limited access to current tax resources, inadequate taxation software, large class sizes, insufficient instructional time, limited lecturer training, and students' difficulty in interpreting tax regulations may reduce the effectiveness of taxation practical exercises. The study therefore expects structured, current, practical, progressively challenging, and technology-supported taxation exercises to contribute significantly to improved tax computation skills among accounting education students in Nigeria. The study is expected to contribute to the literature on taxation practical exercises, tax computation skills, accounting education, taxation education, practical accounting competence, experiential learning, constructivist learning, mastery learning, tax education, accounting pedagogy, and higher education in Nigeria. The findings will provide useful information to the National Universities Commission, universities, accounting education departments, accounting educators, professional accounting bodies, tax authorities, accounting and tax advisory firms, employers, curriculum developers, and policymakers regarding strategies for strengthening practical taxation education. The study will also provide evidence-based recommendations for increasing practical tax computation activities, developing realistic Nigerian taxation cases, regularly updating taxation teaching materials to reflect current tax legislation, integrating spreadsheets and tax-computation software into taxation exercises, strengthening students' training in tax computation procedures, training accounting educators in practical taxation instruction, using competency-based tax assessment methods, providing continuous corrective feedback, and creating opportunities for accounting education students to develop the practical tax computation skills required for effective accounting and tax practice in Nigeria.

Keywords: Taxation practical exercises, tax computation skills, accounting education students, tax education, taxable income, tax liability, capital allowances, allowable deductions, practical accounting competence, taxation education, Nigerian universities, Nigeria.