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First of all, Happy New Year and compliments of the season. This is my first article of 2026. I hope you comment and share it to at least one of your social media pages.
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has officially been rebranded to the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) with a new name, logo, and institutional corporate identity. The NRS replaces FIRS as part of the implementation of Nigeria’s new tax regime under the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, 2025, enacted by President Bola Tinubu in June and effective from today, January 1, 2026.
Purposely, the creation of the Nigeria Revenue Service Establishment Act, 2025, the NRS, and the accompanying identity change officially replace the old FIRS structure and functions to reflect a shift to a more unified, efficient, transparent, and service-oriented revenue authority that aligns with global best practices and economic transformation goals.
The NRS now has the authority to collect and administer all federal revenues, taxes, and even non-tax revenues, which were previously fragmented. This will now help to improve coordination across agencies, real-time tracking of collections, and accountability. Under the NRS administration, digital systems will be deployed, databases will be integrated, and taxpayer services will be streamlined to make compliance easier and enforcement fairer.
Speaking of streamlining taxpayer services, the NRS has doubled the National Identification Numbers (NIN) as tax IDs for individuals. Even before the transition to NRS, FIRS had automatically declared the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC)'s NIN as the tax ID for individual Nigerians. On the other hand, Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC)'s RC number issued to businesses has also automatically becomes the tax ID for registered businesses.
Tinubu Tax Reform Agenda
In June 2025, President Tinubu’s administration enacted the most extensive overhaul of Nigeria’s tax framework in decades. Tinubu signed four major tax reform bills into law: the Nigeria Tax Act, the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Act.
These four laws are tax reform that create a unified legal and institutional tax architecture for the new regime. They're also designed to modernize Nigeria’s tax system by simplifying tax codes, removing inefficiencies, and widening the tax net. The tax reform also improves overall fairness in the sense that only a small percentage of Nigerians in the lowest income brackets bear tax burdens.
In addition to that, the reform is aimed at stimulating investment and helping businesses expand by supporting economic growth through a reduction in corporate income tax from 30% to 25%. Another key objective is revenue mobilization that focuses on strengthening Nigeria’s tax base and reducing reliance on oil revenue.
However, legal challenges to halt the reforms have been dismissed by the federal courts, and the laws have full take effect. Notably, two of the tax laws took effect in June 2025, the remaining provisions, including the full rollout of the Nigeria Revenue Service, became effective on January 1, 2026.
Furthermore, the Nigerian government has changed how the ₦50 stamp-duty charges on electronic bank transfers will be collected. Nigerian banks, fintechs, and other financial institutions are now charging the senders of transactions worth ₦10,000 and above a ₦50 stamp duty on electronic transfers fee—fee that was previously charged on receiver's deposit.
This fee is a statutory requirement under the updated Nigeria Tax Act, 2025, and replaces the previous Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL).
