How freelancers can battle unfair taxes in 2026

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Nigeria will enter a brand new tax period in 2026, constructed on its most sweeping reforms but. The federal government desires extra income, fewer leakages, and a wider tax internet. For the primary time, distant employees, and freelancers are formally captured underneath earnings tax.

Salaries are taxed at a most of 25%, and companies incomes beneath ₦100 million ($68,945.07) yearly are exempt, all to push the tax-to-GDP ratio to 18% by 2027, from 10%.

For the reason that legal guidelines have been handed in June 2025, most reporting has centered on who pays kind of. However behind that noise sits an establishment that will form how atypical Nigerians navigate this new regime: the Workplace of the Tax Ombud.

For a lot of first-time taxpayers — freelancers, skitmakers, on-line creators, and small enterprise homeowners — who now face fines of as much as ₦1 million ($689.45) or three years in jail for false earnings declarations, this workplace is the place to report unfair assessments, arbitrary penalties, unlawful calls for, or abusive practices. It’s designed as an impartial physique, the taxpayer’s first line of defence when tax authorities overreach.

And with the federal government projecting a minimum of ₦17.85 trillion ($12.31 billion) in tax and customs income for 2026, the strain on tax authorities to gather extra is constructing. That strain is precisely why this workplace issues.

On November 4, 2025, the federal government appointed John Nwabueze, a former technical adviser in President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, as Nigeria’s first Tax Ombudsman.

“The Workplace of the Tax Ombudsman has been established to strengthen transparency and accountability inside the tax system, improve confidence in tax administration, and supply a structured mechanism for the truthful and neutral decision of disputes between taxpayers and income authorities,” the federal government mentioned in an announcement.

This transfer aligns Nigeria with international locations akin to Tanzania, South Africa, and the USA of America, which even have impartial taxpayer safety our bodies.  

What the Ombud is meant to do

Tax disputes in Nigeria have historically been settled by tribunals or the courts, that are gradual, costly, and inaccessible for most individuals. The Ombud is meant to repair that. It was created as a extra agile, much less bureaucratic route for investigating tax-related complaints and defending taxpayer rights.

It has the ability to obtain and examine complaints in opposition to tax officers, authorities, and companies, and resolve these disputes by mediation or conciliation.

It might advocate actions to income authorities, provoke authorized proceedings on behalf of taxpayers for gratis, present data on the capabilities of tax authorities, and lift consciousness of taxpayer rights and obligations.

It might additionally challenge tips, directives, or orders for grievance decision and report questionable insurance policies to the Nationwide Meeting. Primarily, it’s a watchdog sitting between taxpayers and an more and more highly effective tax authority.

What it can not do

Nevertheless, the identical regulation enabling this new workplace additionally clips its wings. It can not decide how a lot tax an individual or enterprise owes, challenge assessments, or interpret tax legal guidelines besides in relation to operational, procedural, or administrative questions. It can not evaluation or intervene in issues already earlier than a tribunal or court docket.

“One could be left to marvel how the Tax Ombud would have the ability to conduct its investigation with out juxtaposition of the information of every grievance with its perceived interpretation of the related tax regulation,” AO2Law, a Lagos-based agency, mentioned in a report.

“It subsequently seems right here that the creation of the workplace of Tax Ombud could also be beauty and a paper tiger because the draftsmen have proven that the provisions of the Joint Income Board (Institution) Invoice, is a mere administrative formality that possesses no coercive energy to compel any tax authority to carry out an act even the place the end result of the investigation exhibits acts of arbitrariness on the a part of a tax authority,” the regulation agency continues.

Taxpayers usually are not required to complain to the Ombud first and go straight to the tribunal.

“The implication of that is {that a} tax authority can disregard the workplace of a Tax Ombud and proceed with its perceived arbitrary actions in opposition to a taxpayer,” AO2Law added.

What does this imply?

The Workplace of the Tax Ombud was launched to rebalance the ability play between taxpayers and income authorities, particularly as extra Nigerians might be captured underneath the tax internet. However the regulation offers it extra discretion than authority. It might advocate however not implement.

So, whereas Nigerians, particularly freelancers and first-time taxpayers, now have an workplace that may shortly mediate, elevate pink flags, and push again in opposition to excesses, it nonetheless looks like a spot to complain, not essentially a spot to win. In the end, freelancers should must go to courts for the various points the Ombud can not resolve.