Tax in Nigeria
Two offices, not one.
Some of what you owe goes to the federal service. The rest goes to your own state's revenue service, on its own dates. Here's each tax, who collects it, and whether it's yours to worry about — no penalty language, no countdown clocks.
Which ones are yours comes down to two answers.
How the business is registered decides whether your profit is company income tax or personal income tax. Which state it belongs to decides which revenue service the state half goes to. BizBrada asks both when you set up, and shows you only what applies.
Collected federally
Nigeria Revenue Service
VAT
Value added taxYou add it to what you charge, collect it from the customer, and pass it on. It was never your money — the trouble starts when it sits in your account long enough to feel like it is.
- Applies
- If you sell most goods or services
- Rate
- 7.5% on top of your price
- Due
- Monthly, by the 21st of the following month
VAT you paid on business purchases comes off what you send. Record your purchases and you keep money that's yours.
Read the full guide →CIT
Company income taxTax on profit — sales less the cost of running the business. Not on everything that passed through your account. If you're not incorporated, this one isn't yours: your profit is taxed as your own income, by your state.
- Applies
- Only if you're a registered limited company
- Rate
- Charged on profit; small companies are relieved
- Due
- Once a year, after your financial year end
Plenty of small companies owe nothing here. The return still has to go in: unfiled is what turns nothing owed into something owed.
Read the full guide →WHT
Withholding tax on companiesYou hold back a slice of what you owe the supplier and send it on in their name. Pay a company and that slice is federal — the same deduction to an individual goes to a state instead.
- Applies
- When you pay a limited company for services
- Rate
- Usually 5% or 10% of the invoice
- Due
- By the 21st of the month after deduction
Tell BizBrada what kind of payee each supplier is, once. After that every deduction is routed to the right office without you thinking about it.
Read the full guide →Collected by your state
Your state's internal revenue service — a different office, with its own dates
PAYE
Pay as you earnYour employees' tax on their salary. You take it out before you pay them and send it to a state revenue service — the state each person lives in, which isn't always the state your shop is in.
- Applies
- If you pay salaries
- Rate
- Worked out per person, after pension and NHF
- Due
- Monthly, usually by the 10th
Enter pension and NHF and the figure drops — correctly. Put each person's home state in and their PAYE goes to the office that's actually owed it.
Read the full guide →PIT
Personal income taxThere's no company to tax, so the business profit is simply your income. Your state assesses it and your state collects it. This is the income tax most small businesses in Nigeria actually pay.
- Applies
- If you trade as a business name, a partnership, or unregistered
- Rate
- Your profit, on the same bands as a salary
- Due
- Once a year, to your state
Every legitimate expense you never recorded, you paid tax on. Recording purchases isn't paperwork here — it's the difference in the bill.
Read the full guide →WHT
Withholding tax on individualsSame deduction, different destination. Because the person you paid is taxed by a state, what you held back belongs to that state, not to the federal service.
- Applies
- When you pay an individual or an unregistered supplier
- Rate
- Usually 5% of the payment
- Due
- By the 10th of the following month, to the state
Sending everything to one office is the common and expensive mistake — the office that was owed still counts you short. BizBrada splits the report by office.
Read the full guide →Premises
Business premises registrationYour state charges to register each place you trade from, paid on opening and renewed yearly. Small money, and the most physically enforced obligation on this page.
- Applies
- If you trade from a shop, office or workshop
- Rate
- A small annual fee, set by your state
- Due
- Once a year, per location
It sits in your calendar once a year. Mark it registered when it's paid and we go quiet about it until next year.
Read the full guide →What we hold, and what we don't
Federal rates and dates: all of them, everywhere in Nigeria. State rates: Lagos in full, with more added state by state. Anywhere else you'll still see the obligation and the date — we just won't put a figure on the state part until we hold that state's own rates. A confident wrong number is worse than an honest gap.
If you're behind
Months unfiled is the most ordinary situation we see, not a confession. Tell us where you are and we'll work out what's outstanding — with each authority separately — and take it in order. You don't need to have it tidy before you start; tidying it is the job.