Commercial banks have been directed to file reports on bank accounts with N25 million quarterly turnover and above to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) or other related agencies for effective tax monitoring.
Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, broke the news yesterday during a media workshop on the new consolidated tax law held in Lagos.
He said the directive aligns with the federal government’s new tax administration framework starting January 1, 2026.
Addressing the misconception that banks will begin reporting all transactions, Oyedele said the 2020 Finance Act already required accounts used for business to have a Tax Identification Number (TIN).
He added that the new reform even raises the threshold for mandatory reporting from N10 million to N25 million, which he said translates to “almost N100 million a year before any report is triggered.”
Oyedele said only accounts that meet the turnover threshold will be indentified and monitored for proper tax payment.
He further stated that that banks will be required to request a Tax Identification Number (TIN) from all taxable Nigerians in line with the new tax regime.
According to him, Section 4 of the Nigerian Tax Administration Act, makes the possession of a tax ID mandatory for all taxable individuals. He clarified that the requirement does not apply to students or dependents, who will be exempted from needing a tax ID to maintain a bank account.
He however, said there was no need for anxiety over possibility of banks directly debiting customers’ accounts over tax matters.
Oyedele said: “Nobody will debit your bank accounts in banks. Banks will not debit customers’ accounts for tax default”.
He dismissed allegations that government plans to deduct money directly from bank accounts of tax payers, insisting that such claims are “false, dangerous and capable of destabilising the economy.”
He said the speculations on social media were based on ignorance and deliberate misinformation.
“Let me say this clearly: nobody — not FIRS, not Central Bank of Nigeria, not any government agency — has the power to debit your bank account,” he declared. “Whether you have N50,000 or N50 million, nobody is taking any money from your account. It is simply not true.”
Oyedele explained that the allegation arose from the consolidation of major tax statutes into a single code, which led many to assume that the government had introduced new enforcement powers.
He clarified that the only existing mechanism that allows recovery of unpaid taxes 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.”
According to him, in nearly three decades of tax administration work, he has “never seen a single instance where money was removed from an account without due judicial process.”
He recalled the attempt under the former FIRS Chairman, Babatunde Fowler, to impose post-no-debit orders on accounts suspected of tax evasion — a move that failed without recovering a single naira.
“That process didn’t succeed, and it created unnecessary panic,” he noted. “Nobody is repeating that mistake.”
The tax reform chair warned that the ongoing rumours could cause harmful panic withdrawals.
“One thing that can damage the economy very quickly is people rushing to withdraw their money out of fear,” he cautioned.
“Nothing in the law authorises the government to debit accounts. Please help us educate others so we don’t create a problem where none exists.”
Oyedele maintained that the goal of the reform is to simplify compliance, expand the tax net, and reduce the burden on households and small businesses.
