CORPORATE TAX AVOIDANCE UNDER THE NEW TAX REGIME: LEGAL LOOPHOLES AND REMEDIES

Abstract

Corporate tax avoidance remains a persistent challenge for emerging economies, and Nigeria is no exception. The enactment of the Nigeria Tax Act, 2025, effective 1st of January, 2026, consolidates multiple legacy tax statutes into a unified framework intended to enhance revenue mobilisation, improve compliance, and reduce loopholes. This article critically examined the structural design of the new tax regime to identify statutory loopholes, drafting weaknesses, and doctrinal ambiguities that enable corporate taxpayers to lawfully minimise tax obligations. The article adopted the doctrinal approach method. Using the governance oriented framework, it analysed the interplay between legislative formulation, institutional capacity, and corporate behaviour, demonstrating how avoidance strategies exploit both indeterminate statutory language and discretionary enforcement mechanisms. The article further explored the systemic implications of these loopholes for fiscal capacity, institutional integrity, regulatory power asymmetries, and the legitimacy of Nigeria’s corporate tax system. Finally, it proposed targeted legal and institutional remedies to restore coherence, constrain avoidance, and reinforce the authority of the tax regime. By situating the analysis within the new 2025 tax legislation, the study offered timely insights into the structural limits of tax reform and the measures necessary to achieve sustainable corporate tax compliance in Nigeria.