Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, has assured Nigerians that the new tax laws taking effect on January 1, 2026, will not involve automatic deductions from personal bank accounts.
Speaking on Channels Television’s year-end programme, 2025 In Retrospect: Charting a Pathway to 2026, Oyedele explained that the reforms are based on self-declaration, meaning taxpayers will report their income themselves rather than having the government debit their accounts.
“Some people think the government will start debiting their accounts next year. How that idea came about, I don’t know. No one will deduct any money from your account. Whether it’s a billion or one thousand naira, at the end of the year, you declare it yourself,” he said.
He added that the system is designed to be simple, transparent, and fair, particularly for individuals earning modest incomes and small business owners.
“You know what counts as your income. You tell the government: ‘This is my income and here is the tax.’ If you are exempt, you simply declare that you are exempt. It’s a straightforward process that we are making even simpler,” Oyedele said.
He also highlighted that the reforms will make taxation more progressive, ensuring vulnerable earners are no longer disproportionately burdened. “If you run a small business or are hustling, the system will no longer be regressive. We’ve made it progressive,” he said.
Earlier, President Bola Tinubu affirmed that the rollout of the new tax laws, including those enacted on June 26, 2025, and others starting January 2026, would proceed as planned. He described the reforms as “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a fair, competitive, and robust fiscal foundation,” emphasising that they are intended to restructure and harmonise the system rather than raise taxes.
Tinubu urged stakeholders to support the implementation, noting that the process is now “firmly in the delivery stage” and no significant issues have emerged to halt it.
