FG insists on January 1 implementation of tax laws

The Federal Government has insisted that it is committed to kick-starting the implementation of the new tax reforms laws on January 1, 2026, saying the reforms are aimed at promoting economic growth inclusivity as well as shared prosperity for Nigerians.

This was disclosed by the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele in Lagos on Friday.

Oyedele gave the assurance after presenting an update on the implementation of the tax reform to President Bola Tinubu.

Oyedele was accompanied to the meeting with the President by the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Zacchaeus Adedeji, and the chairman of the National Tax Policy Implementation Committee, Joseph Tegbe.

Addressing journalists after the meeting, Oyedele, who said the committee is open to working with the National Assembly, added that “As you are already aware, there are four of those laws, and two of them have already commenced, and that’s the Nigerian Revenue Service Establishment Act and the Joint Revenue Service Establishment Act which commenced in June, 2025.”

He said the remaining two laws, the Nigerian Tax Act and the Nigerian Tax Administration Act are scheduled to commence on January 1, 2026.

“We welcome the statement by the National Assembly, House of Representatives committee today on the findings and the work around the allegations about alteration.

“The federal government is committed to working with the National Assembly if and when any action is required, and therefore the plan to commence the new law on the 1st of January 2026 will go ahead as planned on schedule, because these reforms are designed to provide relief to the Nigerian people.”

Oyedele said the whole idea about the reforms is to try and “promote economic growth, inclusivity as well as shared prosperity for our people. So we’re actually excited that the progress we’re making, and we’re looking forward to January 1, 2026.”

He further explained that, the tax reform bills were at the National Assembly for nine months, from October 2024, until June 2025, adding that, “preparation started from day one, and since the laws were signed, we’ve also had now about six months in which we’ve been doing preparation, capacity building, system upgrade and sensitization.

“You would agree that this kind of reform is work in progress. You never get to perfection. You get better as you go along. So we believe that we’re at a point already. One of the reasons why two of the tax laws took effect about six months ago is so that those institutions can start getting ready.

“For example, you have the office of the tax Ombuds. You can’t set up that office on day one, and it begins to work on day one. So all of these combined, like I said, professionals, organised private sector, are why we continue with the engagement. And we believe that we are in a good state to be able to commence the implementation.”

He said the intention for the tax reform is not immediate revenue generation.

“We believe that over time, you get revenue from growth when the economy is growing, people pay not because tax rate has gone up, but because the base has increased. These reforms have rationalised a lot of wasteful and incentive that are distortionary, which is in itself, not helpful for the economy.

“We see as a result of this transformative tax reform, increasing awareness of and then task culture, and therefore improve compliance. So if people that were not paying before start paying, not only do you get more revenue, you get fairness for society,” he said.

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