Adedeji dismisses claims of taxing personal bank transfers

By Abubakar Yunusa

Zacch Adedeji, chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service, on Sunday dismissed claims that personal bank transfers are being taxed, describing the reports as misinformation.

Adedeji spoke during an interview on Arise TV, monitored The People’s Daily, where he addressed public concerns over bank transfer narrations and alleged monitoring by tax authorities.

“Those people you see promoting all these rumours and misinformation are those people that are avoiding taxes,” he said.

The NRS chairman said transfers between individuals, including those sent to family members, are not subject to monitoring or taxation by either state or federal tax authorities.

“Nobody will look for narration,” Adedeji said. “No tax authority, whether state or federal, will go and pry into your bank account to check who transferred what. It was not in the old law and it can’t be in the new law.”

He added that there is no provision in Nigeria’s tax laws that allows taxation based on transfer narrations. “Narration or whatever, it is just misinformation. There is nothing about that in the tax law,” he said.

Adedeji also clarified complaints over deductions on bank transfers, saying recent changes have reduced charges rather than increased them.

“Before, when you do a transfer, both the person receiving and the person paying were charged. Today, it is only the payer that pays stamp duty,” he said.

He further explained that many complaints attributed to the federal government are actually within the remit of state internal revenue services.

“For the federal government, through the Federal Inland Revenue Service, we collect corporate taxes,” Adedeji said. “Many of the complaints people talk about are actually issues at the state level.”

The NRS chairman said several states are now domesticating the Nigeria Tax Act, 2025, as part of ongoing reforms aimed at addressing multiple taxation and improving revenue administration.

According to him, the reforms are designed to support economic growth, noting that government revenue increases only when citizens and businesses are able to prosper.