The Federal Government has declared that income earned by commercial sex workers will henceforth be subject to taxation under Nigeria’s new tax reforms scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2026.
Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, said the tax laws do not distinguish between legal and illegal income but are focused on whether money is earned from goods or services.
“There is this extreme example… if somebody is doing runs, they go and look for men to sleep with. You know that is a service, they will pay tax on it,” Oyedele explained in a video shared on X.
He stressed that under the law, “the tax system does not ask whether your business is legitimate or not. It only asks if you have earned income. If you got it by providing a service or selling a good, you must pay tax.”
However, Oyedele clarified that upkeep money or financial support given to relatives, friends or even strangers is considered a gift and therefore not taxable.
“If the amount you are sending is money you are giving to them not because they have done something for you, then it is a gift. We call it a non-exchange transaction. That is not taxable,” he said.
President Bola Tinubu had on June 26 signed four new tax reform bills into law: the Nigeria Tax Act, the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Act.
The reforms, recently gazetted, aim to expand Nigeria’s tax net and improve compliance.
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