The Joint Tax Board (JTB), the umbrella body of all tax authorities in Nigeria, has debunked reports and insinuations making the rounds that Nigerians without a Tax Identification (Tax ID) would be denied access to their bank accounts or prevented from carrying out financial transactions from January 1, 2026.
The statement was contained in a press release issued on Sunday night by the Head, Corporate Communications, JTB, Mrs Akpe Adoh on the Joint Tax Board (JTB) social media page.
In the statement, Mrs Akpe moved to allay the fears of Nigerians by assuring them that they will continue to have access to their bank accounts and will also continue to carry out financial transactions beyond January 1, 2026.
Mrs Akpe further stated that, “In line with the tax reforms championed by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, government is working to make tax compliance simpler, fairer, and more inclusive for all Nigerians.”
The JTB Corporate Communications Head outlined the reforms to include, eliminating multiple taxation, granting tax exemptions to vulnerable individuals and small businesses, and ensuring that the majority of Nigerians will pay lower taxes under the new tax regime.
She also said that, to support the vision of the new tax regime, ” The JTB ( Comprising the 36 States Internal Revenue Service, the FCT-IRS and the FIRS) are collaborating on an harmonised National Tax Identification system, which will leverage the National Identification Number (NIN) for individuals and the Registration Number ( RC) for businesses as unique identifiers for tax purposes.”
Mrs Akpe stressed further that, ” This initiative will enable the seamless and automatic generation of Tax IDs for individuals with NIN and businesses with RC, thereby making it easier for Nigerians to comply with tax requirements without any disruption to their banking and/ or financial activities.”
The JTB Corporate Communications Head, therefore, called on the public to remain calm and ignore any claims to the contrary, emphasizing that, the JTB remains committed to implementing people -centered tax policies that promote economic growth, fairness and ease of doing business while ensuring that Nigeria remains a tax friendly environment.
