Tinubu govt to directly tax bank money Nigerians can’t explain

From 2026, the federal government will start deducting taxes directly from the bank accounts of Nigerians who receive income they cannot explain, according to Taiwo Oyedele, chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms.

Speaking on Seun Okinbaloye’s Mic On podcast, Mr Oyedele said the government is building a modern system that will track incomes and automatically charge people who fall into the tax bracket but either don’t pay or underpay.

“Instead of relying on people to be patriotic and tell us their income, we want to use the system to find out,” he said. “Your primary role is to declare your income yourself, then the government, on the other hand, will do a fiscal system valuation.”

He said that once the system checks a taxpayer’s records, the government will know who has not paid the right amount. “If you cannot explain yourself, and your tax is N1 million, under this new tax system next year, if you have a bank account, we can debit your bank account,” he said.

According to him, deductions will come only after the person has been given a chance to explain. If they fail to do so, “the government can substitute what you have to collect the taxes you owe. Which means we can do things professionally, we can be decent… There are very decent ways of doing that in modern society, and Nigeria should not be the exception.”

The Nigerian government is introducing a raft of new tax laws from January as part of reforms the government hopes will widen the tax new and increase revenue. Nearly two weeks ago, the plan to introduce a new capital gains tax regime that could triple existing rates triggered the biggest single day fall in the Nigerian stock market, prompting an effort by the government to clarify.

Religious workers will also pay tax

Mr Oyedele also said individuals who work for religious bodies – such as pastors, imams, choir members and others – will be taxed if their earnings exceed the threshold.

When asked if the salaries of pastors and imams are taxable, he replied: “It’s an income. So what the law says is that the church and the mosque would not pay taxes unless they start doing business as an institution or organization.”

He added that those being paid by churches or mosques are simply workers: “Anybody they pay, whether it’s a pastor, whether it’s a choir… they are working in God’s vineyard, it just happened they are working in the church, but they are workers.”

However, he made clear that people earning below the taxable limit remain exempt. “If what you’re getting is below the threshold for taxation, you are exempted – whether an imam or pastor, or don’t believe in God,” he said.

The new system, he stressed, is neutral: “Tax law is neutral, whether you’re a man or a woman. If you’re a low-income earner, your tax will be lower, and if you’re a high-income earner, your tax will go up.”