Nigerian Tax Law To Require TIN and NIN in Attempt To Curb Crypto Tax Evasion and Avoidance

Quick Breakdown

Nigeria’s 2025 Tax Administration Act now requires Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) to collect and report users’ Tax Identification Numbers and National Identification Numbers with transaction data.
The move aligns Nigeria with the OECD’s Crypto‑Asset Reporting Framework, enabling authorities to trace crypto profits at home and abroad for taxation.
Exchanges face higher compliance costs, and users lose anonymity, while tax officials gain tools to audit, match, and recover underreported crypto income.

According to reports by TechCabal, Nigeria’s new tax rules transform how crypto activity is monitored by legally binding platforms to users’ TIN and NIN records. Authorities can now connect trading histories on registered crypto platforms to existing income filings, closing gaps that allowed many retail and professional traders to avoid declaring digital asset gains.

Nigeria’s new tax laws force crypto platforms to link transactions to TINs and NINs, making digital money traceable without touching the blockchainhttps://t.co/6rAMmQ8Cgm
— TechCabal (@TechCabal) January 12, 2026

Nigeria’s Tax Administration Act of 2025 significantly tightens regulations on cryptocurrency trading. The new law mandates that Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) must collect and periodically submit full customer identification data, including Tax Identification Numbers (TIN), National Identification Numbers (NIN), names, and addresses, to tax authorities. This measure transforms crypto from a largely untraceable channel into one subject to systematic audit, enabling authorities to more easily detect and prosecute discrepancies between reported income and on-chain activities.

However, the new tax regime has faced immediate and substantial criticism. A January 2026 report by KPMG highlighted 31 issues within the Act, including taxing communities as “persons,” contentious capital loss provisions, and the risk of double taxation for foreign entities. While fiscal policy chairman Taiwo Oyedele dismissed these concerns as overly dramatic policy preferences and admitted only to minor clerical errors, he ignored serious allegations, including forgery, concerning the gazetted law. Public anxiety, particularly on social media platform X, reflects a profound distrust in the government’s tax overhaul, with worries centered on potential investor flight and increased operational costs.

TIN/NIN reporting: what changes for Nigerian crypto users?

The Tax Identification Number, issued jointly by the Nigeria Revenue Service and Joint Revenue Board, is designed to track individuals and businesses for assessment, compliance, and enforcement. For individuals, TINs are generated from the National Identification Number, which links citizens to biometric records such as fingerprints and facial data in the National Identity Database.

Ultimately, Nigeria’s proactive steps to regulate crypto are part of a wider effort to combat fraud and build investor confidence. The SEC’s partnership with Chainalysis and the new ISA 2025 define crypto as securities, signalling a commitment to balancing rapid adoption with tighter safeguards.

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