Adewale Olusesan TAIWO2024-05-172024-05-172022-12Kate TurabianPhDhttps://repository.lcu.edu.ng/handle/123456789/124This study examined the effects of income taxes, incentives on the financial performances of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in Nigeria. Despite the role of SMEs in the economy, the financial constraints they face in their operations are daunting, thereby limiting their potentials to drive the economic and overall development as expected. This research investigates the extent to which various income taxes and tax incentives affects financial performances of SMEs in Nigeria. This work fills the research gap from previous studies, by aggregating the income taxes, incentives on financial performance of SMEs, guided by relevant theories in relation to taxes on benefits received, ability to pay, neo-classical theory on incentives and the normative theory. This study adopted a longitudinal research design, the use of secondary data, as well as ordinary least square regression technique and time series data. The population consists of 41.5 million SMEs in Nigeria. Whilst the numerical values of model coefficient was through the use of E-views version 9. The findings revealed that all the independent variables asides the company income tax, have a significant effect on the dependent variable. The results (F-statistics 451.9009, P, 0.00<0.05 and R2- 0.983139), also indicated that the estimated model is appropriate. This study concludes that the financial performance of SMEs in Nigeria, is driven by income taxes and tax incentives. It also recommends more incentives and reduced tax rates by the government for SMEs. Future research should be made towards other categories of taxes and incentives, to measure their effect on both government revenue and the financial performance of SMEs. Keywords: Financial Performance, Income Taxes, Tax Incentives, Small and Medium Enterprises Word Count: 270enThesis