Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed this at a tax education session hosted by the Redeemed Christian Church of God, City of David, Lagos.

In a viral video which circulated on social media yesterday, Oyedele said Nigerians working remotely for foreign companies were legally required to declare their income and pay tax in Nigeria.

“If you are a remote worker, you are a worker, right? You just happen to do your work remotely. You work for a company, that company might be an American company, somewhere in Europe, anywhere, and you earn a salary.

“That amount of money they pay to you is your salary. You will self-declare it. Because if your employer were to be in Nigeria, they will deduct and pay on your behalf. Because your employer is not in Nigeria, they don’t care about the Nigerian tax system,’’ he said.

Oyedele said remote workers who failed to declare their income would be traced and penalised, saying “the obligation falls on you to self-declare.

‘’If you now refuse to declare, the government will see the movement of the money, and say you failed to declare, and they will deem it as your income, charge you tax on it, add penalty, add interest for delayed payments.’’

The presidential committee chair said same applied to social media influencers who generate income online.

He said: “So the same thing applies to influencers. You are influencing online, that’s okay. You earn income, you pay tax as well.”

Oyedele also addressed concerns raised by importers, saying tax reliefs would depend on the nature of their business, whether trading, manufacturing, or other sectors.

“The next question is importers. Do they have any reliefs? We do look at importers as a separate line of business. So, if you are importing, there’s something you’re doing.

‘’It’s either you are into trade, manufacturing, or whatever it is. Depending on the business you are importing to do, you will see some reliefs for that sector,” he said.

On fears about overlapping taxes from federal, state and local authorities, Oyedele explained that the new law now clearly spelled out “jurisdiction” for each tier of government.

He said: “Someone is concerned about paying federal and state taxes. How will they be able to differentiate?

“The new law states clearly what taxes are payable, and who they are payable to. So, there’s a part of the law we call jurisdiction. It says National Revenue Service shall collect these taxes; states shall collect these taxes; local government shall collect these taxes.

“You don’t need to even worry about all of them. You just need to say, who are you? If you are an individual, just worry about personal income tax.

“If you are doing small business, we remove your taxes. The only one we are trying to deal with now is that of local government. If you are a big business, maybe you should have an accountant that will advise you.

“So at the end of the day, whatever number of taxes you are paying now is reduced significantly to a few. And in the tax law, you will see there what taxes you need to pay, who you need to pay to, and when you need to pay those taxes.”

He explained that upkeep money or gifts were not taxable, but noted that payment for any service or product attracts tax obligations.

Oyedele described the new framework as the “most transformative in the nation’s history,” aimed at simplifying compliance, reducing multiple taxation disputes, and improving government revenue.