Taiwo Oyedele, chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms has dismissed claims that tax authorities will directly debit Nigerians’ bank accounts for unpaid taxes, clarifying that neither existing tax laws nor the new consolidated tax framework permits such actions without due legal process.
The clarification follows a wave of social media posts suggesting that recent tax administration measures would allow government agencies to deduct funds directly from bank accounts, raising concerns among individuals and businesses about the safety of their deposits.
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Oyedele said there was no basis for fears that banks would debit customers’ accounts over tax matters, stressing that enforcement procedures remain governed by law and established processes.
“Nobody will debit your bank accounts in banks. Banks will not debit customers’ accounts for tax default,” Oyedele said during a media workshop on the new consolidated tax law.
He explained that the concern appears to stem from misunderstanding of the Nigerian Tax Administration Act (NTAA), which takes effect on January 1, 2026. Section 4 of the Act makes possession of a Tax Identification Number (TIN) mandatory for all taxable individuals as part of efforts to strengthen tax compliance and monitoring.
Under the law, a taxable person is anyone who carries on trade, business or other economic activity to earn income. Banks and other financial institutions are therefore required to request a tax ID from taxable persons.
Individuals who do not earn income and are not classified as taxable persons are not required to obtain a TIN to operate a bank account.
“Individuals who do not earn income, such as students and dependents, do not need to obtain a tax ID,” Oyedele said, adding that income earners and businesses already issued TINs will not be required to obtain new tax identification numbers under the new framework.
He noted that the policy itself is not new. The Finance Act 2020 amended Section 49 of the Personal Income Tax Act to introduce the TIN requirement, while the NTAA now provides clearer legal backing and a more structured enforcement framework for provisions that have existed for several years.
Under the new framework, commercial banks are required to file periodic reports on accounts with a quarterly turnover of N25 million and above with the Federal Inland Revenue Service or other relevant tax agencies for monitoring purposes.
Oyedele said the revised threshold represents a significant increase from the previous N10 million benchmark, translating to nearly N100 million in annual turnover before any reporting obligation is triggered. He emphasised that the reporting requirement is designed to support risk-based tax administration and does not grant banks the authority to deduct funds from customer accounts.
While tax authorities may request information from financial institutions and, in limited cases, appoint banks as collection agents, such steps can only occur after a taxpayer’s liability has been established through formal assessment and the exhaustion of statutory processes.
Oyedele clarified that the only existing mechanism that allows recovery of unpaid taxes from bank accounts is a court-ordered garnishee, which he described as “a long legal process that is almost never used.”
“Even in extreme cases where someone owes hundreds of millions and refuses to pay, the government cannot just wake up and remove money,” he said. “They must assess you, notify you, allow objections, conclude the process, go to court, and get a judge’s order. Without that, nobody can touch your account.”
From January 1, 2026, taxable persons without a TIN may face operational difficulties in running their bank accounts, Oyedele said, but this should not be mistaken for automatic deductions or direct debits. The restriction does not apply to individuals who do not earn income from business or investments.
Nigeria’s tax authorities have increasingly emphasised voluntary compliance as the backbone of revenue mobilisation, with recent gains in non-oil revenue driven largely by improved filing systems, wider tax net coverage, and digital platforms rather than aggressive enforcement actions.