Funso Doherty, a former Lagos gubernatorial candidate, has joined in the waves of controversies surrounding Nigeria’s new tax regime, alleging that multiple, conflicting versions of the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025, are being hosted on official government websites.
In an open letter dated January 6, 2026, and addressed to the Chairman of the Nigerian Revenue Service (NRS), Lagos-based opposition leader said he discovered two different gazetted versions of the Act on the NRS website, raising questions about which version is legally in force.
Doherty said his concerns were triggered after watching a recent interview granted by the NRS chairman on Arise Television, where the tax chief dismissed public controversy surrounding the new tax laws, insisting that the agency was implementing a duly gazetted law that emerged from a “normal lawmaking process.”
However, Doherty said his findings appeared to contradict that assurance.
“Permit me however, to draw your attention to the fact that today, 6 January 2026, I downloaded two different gazetted versions of the Nigeria Tax Administration Act from the NRS website,” he wrote.
According to him, the agency’s website contains “two separate download buttons, each of which returns a different version of the Bill,” noting that a comparison of the documents shows “materially different provisions” from the version passed by the National Assembly.
Screenshots attached to the letter show two downloadable versions of the Act with the same publication date and number, but differing substantially in content. In one version, the threshold for mandatory disclosure of transactions by individuals is set at N50 million and N250 million for corporate bodies, while another version reflects significantly lower thresholds of N25 million for individuals and N100 million for corporate entities.
The discrepancies have fuelled concerns about legal certainty, compliance obligations and potential abuse of regulatory powers under the new tax framework.
“You may wish to address this, so that further controversy or confusion does not arise over which version of the law the NRS is actually implementing,” Doherty cautioned.
He also questioned how multiple versions of the same federal gazette could exist simultaneously.
“Nigerians may also be wondering, as I still am, how there can be multiple versions of the same federal gazette publication that bear the same publication date and number but that differ in content,” he said.
Doherty further disclosed that a similar situation exists on the website of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal and Tax Reforms, where “there are also two versions of the Act available for download.”
The letter was copied to the Attorney-General of the Federation, the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal and Tax Reforms, and the Attorney-General of Lagos State.
