The rationale of most commercial banks is not always to avoid tax but to mitigate them against some losses because of high corporate income taxes. To this effect, the study proposed two objectives. First, to examine the trend of profits of the various selected banks operating in the country .secondly to explore the consequential effect of corporate income tax on the profit of the selected banks. To achieve the above objectives, 24 banks were chosen over the period 2006 and 2015. The random effects panel model was used in the analysis. Findings consequentially point to the fact that higher taxes negatively affect the profits of commercial banks in the country. It was observed that banks in their quest to avoid hefty tax expense turn to forward them to their loan loss provision as a way to cushion them against defaulters of loan. Secondly,It was further identified that another way the bank explore in other to avoid high tax expense was by forwarding them to their total non-interest expense.Our study concludes by recommending a review of the current tax law and the current tax structure in the country to yield benefit to both the nation and the financial institutions operating in the country.