This study captivates the issue of taxation and foreign direct investment inflows in Nigeria through the influence of company income tax, value added tax, customs and excise duties and petroleum profit tax. Using quasi experimental research design, data is sorted from secondary sources such as journals and Nigeria statistical bulletin for an ordinary least square regression analysis to estimate the models. Based on the analysis of the results of the estimated models, the study indicates that custom and excise duty and its lag exhibits positive relationship with foreign direct investment. Also that company income tax and its lag by one year indicates a positive relationship with foreign direct investment in Nigeria. For petroleum profit tax and value added tax, there is a negative relationship with foreign direct investment. In furtherance, it indicates that apart from customs and excise duty, the other components of taxation are not statistically significant with foreign direct investment. This is also true of income taxes which are duelly related with lower economic growth than taxes on consumption and properties. This however, emphasizes the support for ranking of tax instruments in respect of their relationships with economic growth. In this regard, the study recommends that government adopt more of explanatory fiscal policy measures to boost foreign direct investment in Nigeria.