The Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed on Wednesday that Nigeria had entered into agreements with over 100 countries to gather data of remote workers as part of the ongoing tax reforms of the government to ensure tax remittance by the affected workers.
The renowned tax expert, who gave this hint while speaking during a webinar hosted by the National Orientation Agency (NOA) with the theme ‘Simplifying Nigeria’s Tax System’, spoke on concerns about tax administration in the digital economy, particularly for remote workers and online income earners.
According to him, regardless of the company or country, every remote worker in Nigeria is by law required to personally declare their income.
Oyedele clarified: “For the other categories of people who work online, the kind of people you spoke about, where companies just outsource something to them…you might have five stars, another person has 50.
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“The requirement under this new law is that everybody, whether you earn your money from Google or whether you earn it from XYZ Limited in the Bahamas, you have to declare your income yourself. If you fail to do it, the system will then gather intelligence, which is when the money hits your bank account.
“We see this money coming to your Dollar Bank account. If you put the money abroad, Nigeria has signed an agreement with over 100 countries under what is called the Common Reporting Standards. They are already sending us data about Nigerians who have money abroad, property abroad, whether it’s Dubai to the US to Canada to the UK. We have all that information already.
“Essentially, my point is, if it’s about data, the government can get the data. The primary obligation is to do the right thing yourself. If you fail to do it, the government will then come back to you and say, ‘We know this about you, you haven’t been honest, here’s your presumptive assessment. ’ And at that point, you have to deal with it”, he added.
Oyedele recounted how Nigeria began engaging with big tech companies three to four years ago, challenging the disparity between traditional businesses and online platforms regarding Value Added Tax (VAT).
He expatiated: “If you are doing your business, brick and mortar, pop and mom shop, and you sell a phone and you charge VAT, why should the person that is selling it online not charge VAT? We went to these guys and said the services you render is liable to VAT. You are getting an undue advantage by doing it from abroad.”
“We spoke to them, what are your concerns, how can we make it work, and we landed on an agreement. Today, I can tell you Nigeria is making billions of dollars from those taxes, from those digital giants without fighting”, the tax expert added.
Expatiating further on the tax reforms, Oyedele acknowledged that there were some inconsistencies in the recently signed tax legislation, particularly regarding turnover thresholds, noting that “Section 147 of the Nigerian Tax Administration Act says N100 million. Section 202 of the Nigerian Tax Act says N50 million for turnover. The answer to your question is yes, it was an error.”
According to him, the discrepancies arose during the gazetting process after President Bola Tinubu had signed the bills into law on June 26, 2025.
Oyedele clarified that “the Department of Government that is supposed to do the gazetting… said they’ve never done anything like that before. In the process of editing, typesetting, the 50 that was there originally went into one of the laws.”
He revealed that after spending three months trying to correct the gazette, the committee decided to proceed with implementation while preparing a list of amendments for next year, pointing out that “the minimum threshold for exemption is 100 million. That’s what you’ll find when the regulations are out.” “Let’s move forward so our good becomes better than wait until it is best.”
In a related matter on the tax reforms, the committee has clarified that the new Capital Gains Tax (CGT) framework would not retroactively tax investment gains made before 2026.
A statement issued by the committee detailing key provisions of the CGT reform set to take effect from January 1, 2026, under the proposed Nigeria Tax Act 2025 indicated that there would be a cost basis reset and a grandfathering clause designed to preserve old gains while applying tax only to new profits made after the reform takes effect.
