This study interrogates the effect of ownership structures on tax evasion in Nigerian deposit money banks, focusing on the effects of block ownership, board ownership, institutional ownership, government ownership, and foreign ownership. Utilizing an ex-post facto research design, we collected and analyzed annual time series data from 2012 to 2022 based on bank financial reports. Findings reveal that block board ownership and block institutional ownership exert a positive and significant influence on tax evasion, suggesting that concentrated ownership within these categories may heighten incentives or opportunities for tax evasion. Conversely, block government ownership and block foreign ownership exhibit a negative but statistically non-significant effect, indicating that these ownership types may have a moderating influence on tax evasion, though not strongly enough to achieve significance within this sample. The study underscores the role of ownership structure in corporate governance and tax practices, highlighting policy implications for enhancing transparency and reducing tax evasion in the Nigerian banking sector.

Keywords: Block ownership. Tax evasion, deposit money banks, opportunistic behavior, aggressive tax planning