The Federal Government has temporarily suspended the release of implementation guidelines for Nigeria’s newly enacted tax laws, citing uncertainty over which version constitutes the final and legally binding text.
The Chairman of the Presidential Tax Reform Committee, Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed this on Wednesday while delivering a keynote address at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) 2026 Economic Outlook Conference, themed “ICAN@60: Accountability as the Bedrock for National Development.”
Oyedele said he had directed the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) and the Joint Revenue Board (JRB) to halt the issuance of any guidelines, explaining that implementation cannot proceed in the absence of clarity regarding the authentic version of the laws.
According to him, efforts were made to obtain the officially printed copies from the government printer, which under the Acts Authentication Act serve as conclusive evidence of enacted legislation. However, his team was informed that the printed versions were unavailable, as the National Assembly had taken custody of all copies and instructed that they should not be sold or made public pending legislative review.
“The Acts Authentication Act says whatever the government printer publishes is the evidence of the law that was passed,” Oyedele said. “That government printer published something which we regarded as the official version. Lawmakers said it was not what they passed and said they would produce their own gazettes. They sent me a soft copy, but that is not what the Acts Authentication Act provides.”
While acknowledging that the National Assembly’s review process is legitimate, Oyedele said the restriction of public access to the official documents has reintroduced uncertainty into an already contentious reform process.
“I told everyone, the NRS and the JRB, to wait. We cannot issue guidelines because we are not 100 per cent certain that this is the final official position,” he said, adding that staff had been instructed to follow up daily at the government printer.
The four tax laws affected are the National Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, the Joint Revenue Board of Nigeria (Establishment) Act, the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, and the Nigeria Tax Act. All four laws formally came into effect on January 1, 2026.
The reforms have generated significant controversy since December 2025, when allegations emerged that the versions gazetted by the government differed materially from those debated and passed by the National Assembly.
A member of the House of Representatives, Abdussamad Dasuki (PDP, Sokoto), raised the issue as a matter of privilege, claiming discrepancies after comparing the gazetted copies with the Votes and Proceedings and the harmonised versions approved by lawmakers. This led the House to constitute a seven member investigative committee, whose mandate expired on December 25.
On January 3, the National Assembly released Certified True Copies (CTCs) of the approved versions of the laws, effectively disowning the earlier controversial gazetted documents.
Oyedele downplayed the impact of any remaining discrepancies, stating that they do not affect the core provisions of the reforms. “The few items involved do not touch on tax rates, tax burdens, or filing deadlines,” he said, adding that the fundamental objectives and benefits of the reforms remain intact.
He warned that misinformation surrounding the tax reforms has already caused significant economic damage. Oyedele cited a wave of panic selling in the stock market triggered by false claims, which he said led to a loss of approximately N4.6 trillion in market value in a single day in November 2025.
“The new tax laws exempt anyone earning up to N150 million annually,” he noted. “So why are people selling assets worth N1 million in panic? The danger of misinformation is that it causes real losses. Some of these losses affected pension funds managed by PFAs.”
Oyedele also alleged that opposition to the reforms included paid protests, claiming that a group was reportedly given N30 million to stage demonstrations, and that internal disputes over the funds later led some participants to publicly withdraw from the protests.
