Tax reform bills pass second reading at House of Reps

The House of Representatives has taken an important step toward changing Nigeria’s tax system by approving four tax reform bills for their second reading after a long discussion.

Taiwo Oyedele, who leads Nigeria’s Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, shared this news on X on Wednesday. He wrote: “The House of Representatives has today passed the four tax reform bills for Second Reading and referred them to the Finance Committee of the House for further legislative work, including public hearing. We are grateful to the lawmakers for their robust debates and diligent consideration of the bills and look forward to continued engagement with the National Assembly and active participation in the public hearing process. May Nigeria win!”

These changes began when President Bola Tinubu sent four separate bills to the House last year: the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, the Tax Administration Bill, the Nigeria Revenue Service Establishment Bill, and the Joint Revenue Board Establishment Bill. To make things simpler, these four bills were combined into one.

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During the debate, House Leader Prof. Julius Ihonvbere explained why Nigeria desperately needs to update its tax system. Most lawmakers supported the changes, saying they would make tax collection more organized, stop people from being taxed multiple times, get more people to pay taxes, and create a special office to handle tax disagreements.

Some lawmakers worried about unclear language in parts of the bill that could cause problems later and asked the committee to fix these issues.

After more than four hours of discussion, House Speaker Tajudeen Abbas sent the bill to the Finance Committee for more work. The lawmakers agreed that updating Nigeria’s tax system is urgent, saying these changes would make taxes simpler, reduce payroll taxes, remove taxes from basic necessities, and help people who don’t make much money.