New Tax Laws And Adedeji’s Transformation Of FIRS In 24 Months

This week, precisely September 18, 2025, it volition beryllium 24 months since Zacch Adedeji, Ph.D. assumed bureau arsenic the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). His assignment came astatine a captious clip erstwhile Nigeria desperately needed gross to money projects that would bring smiles to the faces of Nigerians who invested truthful overmuch anticipation successful the President Bola Tinubu-led medication by voting him successful arsenic the caput of state.

In January 2024, astatine the archetypal absorption retreat helium presided over, 4 months aft taking office, Adedeji revealed his program to betterment the operations of the gross bureau with a presumption to removing hurdles successful the mode of taxpayers and consequently amended taxation gross collection. The program helium revealed was simple: alteration the agency’s values to marque it taxpayer-centric. This followed a 107 percent show implicit the acceptable extremity successful 2023, wherever FIRS collected N12.37 trillion, exceeding its people of N11.56 trillion. The pursuing year, FIRS exceeded its people of N19.4 trillion, realizing a full of N21.7 trillion. This year, it has a people of N25.2 trillion and with the figures showing connected the dashboard truthful far, the bureau is connected way to surpass it and further interruption its ain record.

The factors liable for these successes tin beryllium traced to the galore initiatives Adedeji has introduced since helium took implicit the affairs of the county’s gross postulation agency. Without being prompted and seemingly to boost the morale of unit members of FIRS, Adedeji, successful April 2024, aft deliberating with his different squad members astatine the absorption level, announced a 60 percent increment successful wage paid to workers. This elicited chaotic jubilation from the full workforce, including their national leaders who were amazed due to the fact that of the unprecedented cognition Adedeji has shown to workers’ payment since coming connected board. All the different payment packages are being attended to arsenic and erstwhile due, a improvement that has led to enhanced productivity among the unit members.

To show its lawsuit centricity and to heighten easiness of doing business, the Service launched USSD code, *829#, aimed astatine improving taxpayers’ satisfaction. What this does fundamentally is that it allows taxpayers to entree assorted taxation services straight from their mobile phones, without needing net access. This was successful summation to the assorted improvements done to the agency’s taxation medication level called the TaxProMax. The FIRS besides precocious introduced the Merchant-Buyer solution popularly known arsenic e-invoicing. Within the archetypal 2 weeks of its adoption past month, implicit 1,000 of the implicit 5,000 eligible ample taxpayers – firms with yearly turnover of N5 cardinal and supra -have keyed in.

To artifact leakages occasioned by illicit fiscal flows (IFFs) and bring much gross into the coffers from multinational corporations, FIRS nether Adedeji precocious organized a two-day league connected the issue. This became imperative arsenic Nigeria, according to disposable data, loses $18 cardinal annually to IFFs owed to nett shifting and assertive taxation avoidance practices by immoderate multinational corporations transacting businesses successful Nigeria. How to fortify compliance mechanisms, heighten beneficial ownership transparency, and leveraging exertion to observe and deter taxation evasion, commercialized mispricing, and different illicit outflows were discussed astatine the lawsuit enactment unneurotic by its Proceeds of Crime Management and Illicit Financial Flows Coordinating Directorate (POCM-IFF) successful FIRS.

Close to tackling the supra is the National Single Window, NSW, task by the national government. This inaugural is domiciled successful FIRS. It was observed that bureaucratic processes progressive successful import and export processes person led to agelong waiting clip astatine the ports, which is simply a disincentive to Foreign Direct Investment. NSW was introduced to tackle this challenge. When it enters afloat cognition by the 2nd 4th of 2026, the eventual extremity of the initiative, which is to commercialized facilitation is expected to beryllium met, portion besides optimizing gross procreation successful summation to enhancing easiness of doing concern successful the country

Beyond his docket astatine FIRS, immoderate assignments people fell connected his thigh and 1 of specified was his enactment of the sub-committee of the Federal Executive Council inaugural connected Domestic Sale of Crude Oil and Refined Products successful Naira. To guarantee proviso stableness and optimize the utilization of section refining capacity, his committee had been tasked with ensuring the merchantability of crude lipid successful naira for home refining remains successful force. To the glory of God, Nigerians are present seeing the gain. No much queues astatine substance stations and prices person astir stabilized, for the archetypal clip successful galore years. Petrol terms is besides gradually coming down.

The astir challenging of each the tasks Adedeji has carried retired astatine FIRS is the taxation reform. The 4 taxation bills were subjected to each forms of drilling. He had to spell retired to de...