The chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, says that from 2026, Nigeria’s federal government will commence the deduction of taxes from the bank accounts of Nigerians with unexplained income.

Mr Oyedele, who spoke in an interview with Seun Okinbaloye’s Mic On Podcast, said the Nigerian government would emplace modern taxation systems to monitor citizens’ incomes , and ensure deductions of commensurate taxes from the bank accounts of those whose incomes fall within the tax bracket but aren’t paying taxes or are paying below the amounts they ought to.

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

“By the time the system validates what you’re doing, we’ll be able to know that you have not paid tax. 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.

“Once you’ve been given due process to explain yourself and you refuse, the government can substitute what you have to collect the taxes you owe. Which means we can do things professionally, we can be decent, we don’t need to go on the streets with wood and nails and start beating people up to collect taxes. There are very decent ways of doing that in modern society, and Nigeria should not be the exception,” he explained.

Mr Oyedele also clarified that the federal government would collect taxes from individuals who get paid for working for religious organisations, including churches and mosques.

When asked if the salaries of imams and pastors are liable for taxation, he responded, saying, “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 organisation.”

He added, “Anybody they pay, whether it’s a pastor, whether it’s a choir, because these people are just working, they’re working in God’s vineyard, it just happened they are working in the church, but they are workers.

“The person who is selling food, you don’t think he or she is doing the work, the farmers who go to the farm so we can eat? They do what everybody pays.”

However, he added that such Nigerians working in religious organisations will be exempted from taxation if their income is below the taxable threshold, adding that the new tax law is blind to gender, race, religion or ethnicity.

He said, “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. The moment we exceed that point as an individual, you pay tax. We can start creating a society where some religions are superior to others. I may just decide that I don’t believe in God, and I’m Yoruba and I believe in babalawo, I dont want to pay tax. 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,” Mr Oyedele said.