Nigeria Tax Act, 2025 · NTA s.155
Claiming the VAT you paid on business spend
Input VAT on services and fixed assets is deductible, as long as the spend was for making taxable supplies.
Who this lands on: Every VAT-registered business buying goods, services or equipment.
Input tax incurred on any taxable supply made to you — including services and fixed assets — may be deducted from the VAT payable on your own taxable supplies for that period (NTA s.155(4)).
The limit is purpose: only to the extent the spend was for consumption, use or supply in the course of making taxable supplies. Private and domestic spend never qualifies.
Where a purchase serves both taxable and non-taxable supplies, only the proportion relating to the taxable side may be deducted (NTA s.155(4)(a)).
A claim must be made within 5 years after the end of the tax period in which the input tax was incurred (NTA s.155(4)(b)) — so a late invoice is not a lost invoice.
Where input VAT exceeds output VAT, the excess carries forward as a credit against later months, and unused credit can be refunded on request to the Service (NTA s.155(1)–(2)).