The tax reform of Nigeria, designed to be a once-in-a-generation fiscal reset, hit a constitutional wall, when the National Assembly accused unknown actors of altering critical sections of the Nigeria Tax Act and three other laws between their passage in May 2025 and their official gazetting in June.
The legislature released the original Certified True Copies of the law, urging the public to disregard from the official government gazette.
The National Assembly is an institution built on records… There is no ambiguity about what constitutes the law. Disregard any versions not certified by us – Abbas Tajudeen, Speaker of the House of Representatives
The four laws, the National Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, Joint Revenue Board Act, Nigeria Tax Administration Act, and the Nigeria Tax Act, were meant to streamline the complex tax codes of Nigeria.
A whistleblower within the House of Representatives, Abdussamad Dasuki, first discovered that the gazetted versions removed NASS oversight powers and changed tax thresholds without legislative approval.
The altered versions removed the power of the National Assembly to summon the Revenue Service Chairman or audit its accounts, granting the agency total autonomy from parliamentary oversight.
The forged gazette had lowered the monthly reporting thresholds for individuals from N50m to N25m, which the NASS has reversed to protect small taxpayers.
The CTCs released by NASS have restored the power to tax petroleum income and Value Added Tax (VAT), which had been missing from the gazetted versions.
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