The Lead Story
No, the Taxman Won’t Raid Your Bank Account
The Big Picture: Twitter went into meltdown this week over claims that the new Nigerian Tax Acts will let the government swoop into personal bank accounts come January 2026. Not so fast, says the National Orientation Agency.
The Details: In a myth-busting bulletin, the NOA insisted that “taxes will not be automatically deducted from the bank accounts of Nigerians,” BusinessDay reports. Instead, Section 29 of the 2025 Nigerian Tax Administration Act only asks banks to report (not debit) customers whose monthly transactions top ₦25 million for individuals or ₦100 million for companies. The agency noted that a mere 5 percent of account holders keep more than ₦500,000 on hand, meaning the vast majority of Nigerians will never trigger the new reporting rule.
Low-income earners also catch a break: anyone making ₦800,000 or less per year will pay zero personal income tax, while small firms turning over under ₦100 million escape profit tax altogether. The NOA says the reforms are aimed at “improving compliance and widening the base without piling pressure on regular folks.”
Why It Matters / What They’re Saying: Confidence is the secret sauce of any tax drive, and banking professionals are keen to bottle it. The Lagos chair of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Akinwunmi Lawal, told Punch the law “is not about increasing the burden on existing taxpayers but expanding the base.” With Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio already up to 13.5 percent, officials hope accurate bank data, not surprise debits, will keep that needle moving.
Around the Tax World
• FIRS hits the road: A second Tax Clinic lands in Abuja on 28 October, part of a plan to “simplify tax, not complicate it,” FIRS boss Dr. Zacch Adedeji told The Nation.
• Bankers back the reforms: CIBN’s Lawal cheered President Tinubu’s “bold economic transformation policies,” adding that the new tax regime should speed up growth (Punch).
• Cost-of-collection confusion: The Finance Ministry says it never ordered FIRS, Customs or NUPRC to stop deducting their collection costs at source, calling viral claims “inaccurate and misleading” (Eyewitness News).
• Nasarawa rewards compliance: The state unlocked ₦5 billion to clear retiree gratuities and snagged FIRS’s Award of Excellence for Exceptional Tax Compliance (BusinessDay).
Prime Number
25,000,000 , the naira value of monthly transactions that will trigger bank reporting under Section 29. Fewer than one in 20 account holders hit that threshold, according to the NOA.
Looking Ahead
All eyes now turn to January 2026, when the new tax laws kick in, after a quick pit stop at the Abuja Tax Clinic later this month to iron out the fine print.
Prepared by MyTax - mytax.com.ng