The Office of the Tax Ombud (OTO) will, in the coming weeks, launch a Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights and Obligations designed to give Nigerians a clearer understanding of their rights and responsibilities when dealing with tax and revenue authorities.

The Tax Ombud and Chief Executive of the OTO, Dr John Nwabueze, disclosed this on Thursday at a stakeholder engagement in Abuja, where he also called on revenue-generating agencies to appoint liaison officers to handle complaints referred to the office.

Nwabueze said the proposed charter would set out the standards of fairness, transparency and accountability that taxpayers should expect from revenue authorities, while also explaining the responsibilities taxpayers must fulfil.

He said the document would be distributed through the OTO’s digital platforms and other public channels, urging tax and revenue agencies to make it available to taxpayers through their offices and online platforms.

According to him, the objective is to ensure that Nigerians are not only aware of their obligation to pay taxes but also understand the protections available to them when they encounter problems in the administration of those taxes.

“We believe this will strengthen taxpayer awareness, encourage voluntary compliance, prevent disputes and build greater trust across the tax ecosystem,” Nwabueze said.

The planned charter comes as the Tax Ombud moves to expand its presence across the country and create easier channels for individuals and businesses to challenge administrative problems they encounter with tax and other revenue authorities.

Nwabueze said the OTO was working with state governments to establish zonal offices across Nigeria, with at least three expected to begin operations within the next few weeks.

He said the expansion was necessary because access to taxpayer protection should not depend on where a person lives or on where a person operates a business.

The zonal offices are expected to make it easier for taxpayers outside Abuja to seek assistance, lodge complaints and obtain information without having to travel to the Federal Capital Territory.

The move follows the office’s broader plan to establish a presence across the country’s six geopolitical zones. The South-East, for instance, has already been designated as the location of a zonal headquarters in Enugu.

Nwabueze also called on revenue-generating agencies to appoint dedicated liaison officers who would serve as the main points of contact between their institutions and the Tax Ombud.

He said such officers would help ensure that complaints are properly referred and communicated, while making it easier to resolve disputes early and prevent them from becoming prolonged conflicts.

The proposed liaison arrangement would also allow agencies and the Tax Ombud to share information within the law, identify recurring administrative problems and follow up on recommendations made after the office intervenes in taxpayer complaints.

Nwabueze said the arrangement would create a more organised system in which taxpayer problems could be identified and addressed before they become larger disputes.

He said, “I propose that revenue-generating agencies designate a Liaison Officer who will serve as the institutional interface with the Office of the Tax Ombud.”

The Tax Ombud’s intervention is particularly significant because Nigeria’s traditional tax dispute system has largely revolved around objections to tax assessments, administrative reviews, the Tax Appeal Tribunal and the courts.

While those mechanisms remain necessary for determining whether taxpayers actually owe particular amounts of tax, Nwabueze said there had been a gap for people who experienced administrative or procedural difficulties in their dealings with revenue authorities.

The Tax Ombud was created to help fill that gap by receiving, investigating and resolving complaints involving taxes, levies, regulatory fees and charges, customs duties and excise matters.

The office was established under Part VI of the Joint Revenue Board of Nigeria (Establishment) Act, 2025, as part of the wider restructuring of Nigeria’s tax administration system.

Nwabueze said the creation of the office represented a shift in how government and taxpayers should relate, with revenue collection expected to go hand in hand with fairness and access to redress.

He said the modern tax system should not be built solely on the government’s power to collect revenue but should also give taxpayers confidence that they will receive fair treatment.

The Tax Ombud is also strengthening its digital operations as part of the effort to make taxpayer services easier to access.

The office has launched a website, an interactive contact centre, and a case management portal through which taxpayers can submit complaints, obtain information, monitor their cases, and receive assistance.

The digital system Is being supported by the gradual movement of the OTO’s internal processes away from manual procedures. Nwabueze said the purpose of the digitalisation was to improve speed, transparency and accountability rather than simply introduce new technology.

The office has also launched a public awareness programme to educate Nigerians about its mandate and the rights available to taxpayers.

Nwabueze said this was important because taxpayer protection would have limited impact if citizens did not know their rights or where to go when those rights were affected.

The OTO’s expanding activities are set against the backdrop of wider efforts by the Federal Government to reform Nigeria’s tax system, simplify administration, and improve domestic revenue collection.

Nwabueze said the reforms initiated under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu were intended to address weaknesses in the existing system, including fragmentation, complexity and the burden created by multiple taxes.

The Tax Ombud therefore sees taxpayer protection as part of the revenue reform process rather than as a separate government activity.

In his view, Nigerians are more likely to comply voluntarily with their tax obligations when they have confidence that the system is fair, transparent and accountable and that they have access to an effective avenue for resolving complaints.

The Tax Ombud’s position is also consistent with its recent efforts to provide free and accessible mechanisms for resolving tax disputes. The office recently said It had received more than 20 genuine complaints in its first three months, with eight already resolved, including cases settled within the statutory 14-day period.

Nwabueze said the broader objective was to reduce friction between taxpayers and government agencies and to create a system in which problems could be resolved without unnecessarily pushing taxpayers into lengthy and costly legal battles.

He also called for stronger cooperation among federal, state and local government revenue authorities because some tax-related complaints involve more than one level of government.

The issue is particularly important in the context of multiple taxation, which the Tax Ombud has previously described as a long-standing problem requiring cooperation among the Joint Revenue Board, state governments and local government authorities.

For the Tax Ombud, the new Bill of Rights and Obligations, the proposed zonal offices, the liaison officer system and the digital complaints infrastructure are parts of the same objective: creating a tax administration in which Nigerians can understand their obligations, demand lawful treatment and obtain timely redress when problems arise.

Nwabueze said the ultimate goal was not to weaken the government’s ability to collect revenue but to build a tax system that Nigerians could trust.

“Taxpayer protection and revenue mobilisation are not competing objectives, but complementary pillars of an effective, trusted and sustainable tax system,” he said.

He urged stakeholders to treat the Abuja engagement as the beginning of stronger cooperation between taxpayers and revenue authorities.

According to him, a more coordinated tax administration would protect taxpayers, improve accountability within government institutions and, in the long run, support the Federal Government’s efforts to raise more domestic revenue. (The Nation)

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