Tax reform in 2025 did not just rename the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), formerly FIRS. It also created a body most taxpayers had never had to think about before: the Joint Revenue Board.
What the JRB is
The Joint Revenue Board (JRB) was created by the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Act 2025. Its job is coordination, sitting between federal and state tax authorities rather than replacing either one.
That distinction matters. The JRB is not a rebrand of the NRS, and it does not take over a state's own revenue service. It exists to align how they work together.
What it replaced
Before the JRB, that coordinating role belonged to the Joint Tax Board, usually shortened to the JTB. The Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Act 2025 put the JRB in its place from 1 Jan 2026.
If you dealt with the JTB in the past, on a matter that crossed federal and state lines, the JRB is now the equivalent body for that kind of question.
The Tax Ombud it created
The same Act set up the Office of the Tax Ombud. A dedicated ombud is new. Under the old system, a taxpayer with a grievance had fewer dedicated channels built specifically to hear it.
We could not confirm the exact process for lodging a complaint with the Tax Ombud in our research for this piece, so check the JRB's own channels directly if you need to raise one.
The Tax Appeal Tribunal
The Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Act 2025 also provides for the Tax Appeal Tribunal, the body a taxpayer disputing an assessment ultimately appeals to. Its creation sits in the same law as the JRB and the Tax Ombud, part of the same package of institutional changes.
What this means for taxpayers day to day
For most people, the JRB works quietly in the background. Its most visible touchpoint is the Tax ID lookup it runs at taxid.jrb.gov.ng, alongside the NRS's own address.
The NRS and the Joint Revenue Board (JRB), jointly issue the Tax ID together, which is why both bodies publish a way to look one up. Our guide to finding your Tax ID covers the steps for both a person and a business.
The JRB becomes more visible the moment a matter crosses federal and state lines, such as a dispute that touches both a state's internal revenue service and the NRS. For most routine filing, you will still deal with the NRS or your state authority directly.
Why a coordinating body was worth creating
Nigeria's tax system was never run by one authority alone. The NRS handles federal tax, while each state runs its own revenue service, and the two do not always see the same picture of a taxpayer that operates across both.
A body whose entire job is aligning those two levels helps a taxpayer avoid being assessed twice for the same activity, or having a federal record and a state record drift out of sync with each other. That is the practical case for the JRB existing at all, separate from the specific institutions it created.
Common mistakes
- Assuming the JRB replaced the NRS. It did not. The NRS is the federal tax authority; the JRB coordinates across federal and state lines.
- Contacting the JRB for a routine filing query. Most day-to-day questions still go to the NRS or your state revenue service, not the JRB.
- Confusing the Tax Ombud with a general complaints line. It was created for taxpayer-rights matters specifically, under the same Act as the JRB.
For the wider set of changes this sits inside, see what changed when FIRS became the NRS and the NRS and Rev360 hub.