Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025 · s.22
VAT returns — the 21st, every month
A VAT return is due on or before the 21st of the following month, trading or not. Small businesses are exempt unless they opt in.
Who this lands on: Every VAT-registered business that is not a small business.
The return goes in on or before the 21st day of the following month, with or without a notice, and whether or not you did any business that month. A nil month is still a return.
It shows input tax you paid, output tax you collected, and the VAT payable on the month's taxable supplies.
A small business does not have to file the monthly return. A small business may write to the Service and opt out of the exemption — then it registers, charges VAT and files like everyone else.
The moment a business stops being small, monthly returns begin. In working out whether you are over the line, leave out the sale of a capital asset and any sale made because you are winding the business up.
Your return must give the details of consumption the Service needs to attribute the tax — leaving that out is charged separately under s.106.
Where the Service deploys technology for it, returns are rendered in real time, or in whatever manner it prescribes (s.22(10)).
A small business holding the exemption is also spared the penalties for failing to register (s.100) and for failing to keep the prescribed books (s.102) — s.22(8). Keeping records is still the only way to prove you are under the line.
If the Service extends your time to file, that does not extend your time to pay.
VAT is never your money. You collect it on the government's behalf and hand it over.