The Federal Government has assured Nigerians that the new tax laws will not involve monitoring or debiting personal bank accounts based on transfer narrations.
Taiwo Oyedele, chairman of the presidential committee on fiscal policy and tax reforms, made the clarification during Channels Television’s end-of-year special on Tuesday.
“There is no tax man in the world that has the capacity to go after everyone,” he said.
Oyedele explained that ordinary bank users should not worry about how they describe transfers.
“Any amount of money you transfer, whether it’s $1 billion, whether it’s $1,000, it doesn’t matter how you describe it.
“Nobody will debit your bank account. At the end of the year, you tell the government yourself,” he said.
He added that the reformed tax system relies on self-declaration.
“You know the amount that is your income. You know the one that is not your income.
“So you tell the government, this is my income, and here is the tax. If you’re exempted, you don’t need to pay any tax. Just say this is my income, and I’m exempted from tax,” Oyedele said.
He added that most Nigerians opposing the reforms are not in the income bracket targeted by the policy and also addressed misinformation spread by some content creators.
“There are content creators who admitted they make up to $10,000 a month. They don’t want to pay tax.
“You think they’ll go and create content that says they want to tax $10,000 a month? No. They’ll say they’re going to debit your bank account. So you can help them fight. Debit your 5,000 naira. You can help them fight the reform, you know,” he said.
He highlighted benefits for small businesses under the reform, saying, “Now, if you run a small business, this is even one of the biggest benefits of the tax reform.
“If you run a small business as a sole proprietor as an enterprise, you just host them. You don’t even have a name for the business. You just host them. Today, there are all manner of levies and taxes.”
He concluded that the reforms are designed to simplify tax reporting, protect small earners, and make the system progressive.
By Femi Akinyemi
