Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, says the Federal Government will, from next year, begin debiting the bank accounts of individuals who cannot explain large expenditures that are inconsistent with their declared income.
Oyedele disclosed this while speaking on Mic On Podcast, where he explained how Nigeria’s new tax-intelligence framework will use data from multiple sources to track high-value tax evasion.
According to him, the system will rely less on voluntary honesty and more on technology-driven verification.
“What happens in your bank account, when you travel abroad, how you use your payment card, electricity, your phone , all those information,” he said, adding that government has also introduced “fiscalisation,” where a copy of every invoice issued for goods or services is automatically shared with the tax authorities.
Oyedele said the goal is to validate what taxpayers declare by comparing it with their actual financial footprint. “Your primary role is to declare your income yourself. Then government, on the other hand, will do a system, ecosystem validation,” he explained.
Using an example, he said taxpayers who claim to have earned modest income but are found to have spent far more will be invited to account for the discrepancy. “You say, ‘life is hard o, I only made 1 million last year.’ And then we see that, uncle, you bought a new car last year, you traveled abroad twice, business class… You spent 50 million, you say you only earned 1. Tell us how.”
Focus on Big Spenders
Oyedele stressed that the new enforcement model is targeted at significant cases of evasion, not low-income earners struggling to survive.
“By the way, government will not go after you if you earn 50,000 and you spend 90,000. They’re not looking for those kinds of small money. It’s not worth it. So it’s usually those big numbers,” he said.
He said once the system identifies a clear tax gap and due process has been followed, government will be empowered under the new tax law to debit the person’s bank account.
“If you cannot explain yourself and your tax is 1 million, under this new tax law from next year, if you have a bank account, we can debit your bank account. Once you’ve been given the due process to explain yourself and you refuse, government can substitute what you have to collect the taxes you owe,” he stated.
Oyedele said the reforms are intended to modernise tax collection and end crude enforcement tactics sometimes used by state and local authorities.
“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 said.
He further added that the broader plan aims to capture millions of additional taxpayers, particularly at the state level, by using data and intelligence rather than manual chases and physical intimidation.
