The Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, has reassured Nigerians that the new tax laws set to take effect from January 1, 2026, will not permit automatic deductions from individuals’ bank accounts.
Speaking during Channels Television’s end-of-year programme, 2025 In Retrospect: Charting a Pathway to 2026, aired on Tuesday, Oyedele clarified that the reformed tax system is built around self-declaration, not direct debits or bank monitoring.
He dismissed circulating claims suggesting that the government plans to monitor or withdraw money directly from citizens’ accounts.
“People think that the government will debit their bank accounts from next year, and how they even came up with that, I have no idea. Nobody will debit your account for any amount you transfer. Whether it’s a billion or one thousand naira, at the end of the year, you tell the government yourself,” he said.
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Oyedele explained that taxpayers would be responsible for declaring their income at the end of each tax year, stressing that the new framework is designed to be transparent, simple and equitable — especially for low-income earners and small business owners.
“You know what constitutes your income and what doesn’t. So you tell the government: ‘This is my income and here is the tax.’ If you are exempted, you simply declare: ‘This is my income, and I am exempted from tax.’ It is a very simple process that we are simplifying further,” he added.
According to him, one of the major goals of the reforms is to correct an unfair system that disproportionately affects vulnerable Nigerians.
“One of the biggest benefits is that if you run a small business as a sole proprietor, an enterprise, or you are just hustling, the system will no longer be regressive, taxing the vulnerable more. We’ve made it progressive,” Oyedele said.
He also referenced earlier remarks by President Bola Tinubu, who confirmed that the implementation of the new tax laws — including those signed into law on June 26, 2025, and others scheduled to begin in January 2026 — will proceed as planned.
The President had described the reforms as “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a fair, competitive, and robust fiscal foundation” for Nigeria. He clarified that the measures are not aimed at increasing taxes but at restructuring the system to promote fairness, harmonisation and dignity while strengthening the social contract between government and citizens.
Tinubu further called on stakeholders to support the rollout of the reforms, noting that the process has now moved firmly into the implementation phase, with no major obstacles identified that would justify delaying the programme.