The Federal Government has confirmed that Nigerians earning income from remote jobs, social media influencing, or import businesses will be required to pay tax under the new fiscal reforms, which take effect on January 1, 2026.
Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, made the clarification during a tax education session organized by the Redeemed Christian Church of God, City of David, Lagos.
In a viral video from the session, Oyedele explained that Nigerians working for foreign companies are not exempt from local tax obligations.
“If you are a remote worker, you are a worker, right? You just happen to do your work remotely. You work for a company, that company might be an American company, somewhere in Europe, anywhere, and you earn a salary.
That amount of money they pay to you is your salary. You will self-declare it. Because if your employer were to be in Nigeria, they would deduct and pay on your behalf. Because your employer is not in Nigeria, they don’t care about the Nigerian tax system,” Oyedele said.
He warned that those who fail to declare their income will be traced and penalized.
“So the obligation falls on you to self-declare. If you now refuse to declare, the government will see the movement of the money, and say you failed to declare, and they will deem it as your income, charge you tax on it, add penalty, add interest for delayed payments,” he added.
Oyedele also stressed that social media influencers must pay tax on income generated online.
“So the same thing applies to influencers. You are influencing online, that’s okay. You earn income, you pay tax as well,” he said.
Addressing widespread fears of overlapping taxes, Oyedele assured that the new law provides clarity by assigning specific jurisdictions to the federal, state, and local governments.
“The new law states clearly what taxes are payable, and who they are payable to. So, there’s a part of the law that we call jurisdiction. It says National Revenue Service shall collect these taxes. States shall collect these taxes. Local government shall collect these taxes.
If you are an individual, just worry about personal income tax. If you are doing small business, we remove your taxes. The only one we are trying to deal with now is local government one,” Oyedele explained.
He further noted that the reforms will reduce the number of taxes currently imposed, while making the system more transparent and easier to navigate.
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