New tax laws: Misinformation being weaponized to create panic - Oyedele

The Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, has decried what he describes as the deliberate weaponization of misinformation to derail the implementation of the new tax laws scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2026.

Speaking during an interview on Channels Television on Monday, Oyedele dismissed fears that the reforms would increase the economic burden on Nigerians, insisting instead that the new laws are designed to reduce taxes for small businesses and low-income earners.

His clarification comes on the heels of allegations raised by a member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Abdul Samad Dasuki (PDP, Sokoto), who claimed on the floor of the House that there were significant discrepancies between the tax bills passed by the National Assembly and the version subsequently signed and gazetted by President Bola Tinubu.

Addressing the controversy, Oyedele noted that while the Committee does not possess the official harmonized bill certified by the Clerk of the National Assembly to make a direct comparison, many of the documents circulating in the media as proof of alteration are based on outdated drafts rather than the final gazetted law.

"What has been circulating and also widely reported by a lot of media organizations is actually fake," Oyedele stated. "I reached out to one of the members of the committees... and the lawmaker said that they haven't even met. So some people decided they should write the report of the committee before the committee has met."

He urged Nigerians to await the outcome of the legislative investigation into the alleged alterations but warned against using the situation to stall a reform meant to benefit the economy.

Oyedele argued that the narrative that the new laws will hike prices and taxes is false. 

He outlined several key benefits of the reforms, including a reduction in the corporate income tax rate from 30 percent to 25 percent and the exemption of small businesses with a turnover of up to N100 million from corporate tax, Value Added Tax (VAT), and withholding tax.

"The cost of not going ahead with the reform... will mean simply that we continue with the status quo which is that the bottom 98% of workers remain overtaxed," he explained.

"If anybody is earning N2 million or less a month, this new tax law from next year eliminates either their PAYE completely for the lowest income earners or it reduces what they earn."

To further debunk the fear of aggressive taxation on the informal sector, Oyedele used the hypothetical example of a vulcanizer, Bababayo, who might generate daily revenue but retains very little profit.

He clarified that under the new presumptive tax regulations, businesses with low profit margins such as roadside corn sellers and vulcanizers would be completely exempted from paying taxes.

"We don't want to leave that judgment as to whether they pay tax or not to the ordinary officer... we want to protect them," he said, adding that the new laws set a reporting threshold of N25 million per quarter. "That means you need to have like N100 million moving around in your account before the tax man will even take an interest."

Oyedele urged Nigerians to verify their tax status using the official calculator on the committee’s website, fiscalreforms.ng, rather than succumbing to panic induced by political misinformation.