The Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service, Zach Adedeji, has stated that those circulating rumours about Nigeria’s new tax laws are mostly individuals seeking to evade taxes.

Speaking in an interview with Arise TV on Sunday, Adedeji clarified the importance of bank transfer narrations under the new tax framework, dismissing claims that personal transfers are subject to taxation as false information.

“Nobody will look for narration,” the chairman said.

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

The NRS boss clarified that transfers between individuals, including those to family members, are not monitored by tax authorities in any way.

“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.

“Narration or whatever, it is just misinformation, there is nothing about that in the tax law.”

Adedeji also responded to concerns over deductions on bank transfers, noting that recent changes have reduced charges.

He explained that under the previous system, stamp duties were levied on both the sender and the receiver, but this practice has now been revised.

“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 added that numerous tax complaints from the public are handled by state internal revenue services, not the NRS.

“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 chief noted that ongoing reforms have led many states to adopt the Nigeria Tax Act, 2025, aiming to address these concerns and prevent multiple taxation.