No Automatic Deductions From Personal Bank Account, Says FG

The Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, has assured Nigerians that the new tax laws scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2026, will not involve automatic deductions from personal bank accounts.

Oyedele said the reforms are based on self-declaration by taxpayers, not direct debits or monitoring of individual bank transactions.

He gave the assurance during Channels Television’s end-of-year programme, 2025 In Retrospect: Charting a Pathway to 2026, which aired on Tuesday.

According to him, there is widespread misinformation suggesting that the government plans to deduct money directly from citizens’ bank accounts once the new laws take effect.

Dismissing the claims, Oyedele said, “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.

He explained that under the new system, taxpayers would be required to declare their income at the end of the tax year and assess their own tax obligations.

Oyedele noted that the reform framework was designed to be simple, transparent and fair, particularly for individuals 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 said.

He added that the reforms aim to correct long-standing imbalances in the tax system that placed a heavier burden on low-income earners.

“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,” he said.

The assurance comes amid growing public debate over the impact of the new tax laws and concerns about how they would be implemented.

President Bola Tinubu has also reiterated that the implementation of the new tax laws, including those enacted on June 26, 2025, and others scheduled to begin on January 1, 2026, would proceed as planned.

The President described the reforms as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a fair, competitive, and robust fiscal foundation,” stressing that the laws are not intended to raise taxes but to reset the system, promote harmonisation and strengthen the social contract.