Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, has disclosed that Nigeria has signed agreements with over 100 countries to obtain data on remote workers as part of efforts to ensure proper tax compliance.

Speaking at a webinar organised by the National Orientation Agency on Wednesday, themed “Simplifying Nigeria’s Tax System,” Oyedele addressed issues surrounding taxation in the digital economy, especially for remote and online income earners.

He explained that every remote worker residing in Nigeria, regardless of the company or country they work for, is required to personally declare their income for tax purposes.

“For the other categories of people who work online, the kind of people you spoke about, where companies just outsource something to them…you might have five stars, another person has 50.

“The requirement under this new law is that everybody, whether you earn your money from Google or whether you earn it from XYZ Limited in the Bahamas, you have to declare your income yourself. If you fail to do it, the system will then gather intelligence, which is when the money hits your bank account,” Oyedele said.

Oyedele said the government already has access to records of financial transactions entering the country and has also signed agreements with over 100 countries to obtain data and track Nigerians with assets and funds abroad.

“We see this money coming to your Dollar Bank account. If you put the money abroad, Nigeria has signed an agreement with over 100 countries under what is called the Common Reporting Standards. They are already sending us data about Nigerians who have money abroad, property abroad, whether it’s Dubai to the US to Canada to the UK. We have all that information already.”

Oyedele urged Nigerians to “do the right thing” by complying with tax obligations, warning that the government would eventually come knocking on the doors of defaulters.

“Essentially, my point is, if it’s about data, the government can get the data. The primary obligation is to do the right thing yourself. If you fail to do it, the government will then come back to you and say, ‘We know this about you, you haven’t been honest, here’s your presumptive assessment. ’ And at that point, you have to deal with it,” he noted.

He recalled that Nigeria began engaging major tech companies about three to four years ago to address the imbalance in Value Added Tax (VAT) treatment between traditional businesses and online platforms.

“If you are doing your business, brick and mortar, pop and mom shop, and you sell a phone and you charge VAT, why should the person that is selling it online not charge VAT?” he said. “We went to these guys and said the services you render is liable to VAT. You are getting an undue advantage by doing it from abroad.”

Oyedele stressed that the government chose a collaborative rather than confrontational approach, which ultimately led to successful agreements with the tech companies.

“We spoke to them, what are your concerns, how can we make it work, and we landed on an agreement. Today I can tell you Nigeria is making billions of dollars from those taxes, from those digital giants without fighting,” he added.

Oyedele admitted there were inconsistencies in the recently enacted tax laws, especially concerning turnover thresholds.

He explained that the discrepancies emerged during the gazetting process following President Bola Tinubu’s assent to the bills on June 26, 2025.