The Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, has clarified that the new tax laws set to take effect from January 1, 2026, will not permit automatic deductions from Nigerians’ personal bank accounts.
Oyedele gave the assurance during Channels Television’s end-of-year programme, 2025 In Retrospect: Charting a Pathway to 2026, aired on Tuesday.
He dismissed widespread speculation that the government plans to monitor or directly debit individual bank accounts under the new tax framework, stressing that the system is built on voluntary income declaration rather than direct debits.
“There is a misconception that the government will start debiting people’s bank accounts next year. I honestly don’t know how that idea came about. No one will debit your account because you transferred money, whether it is one thousand naira or one billion naira,” Oyedele said.
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He explained that taxpayers would only be required to declare their income at the end of the tax year and assess their tax obligations accordingly.
“At the end of the year, you tell the government what your income is. You know what qualifies as income and what does not. If you are taxable, you declare and pay. If you are exempt, you simply state that your income is exempt,” he explained.
Oyedele added that the ongoing tax reforms are designed to simplify the process, promote transparency, and ensure fairness, particularly for individuals with low incomes and small business owners.
According to him, the new framework corrects long-standing inequalities in the tax system by shifting away from practices that disproportionately burden vulnerable groups.
“If you are a sole proprietor, a small business owner, or someone trying to make a living, the system will no longer be regressive. We have redesigned it to be progressive, so it does not punish the most vulnerable,” he said.
