How to File a Tax Return in Nigeria (2026)

The Nigerian tax-return question has a tidier 2026 shape when framed by filing cycle rather than by entity. Five filing cycles cover most taxpayers — three annual and two monthly — and each cycle has its own portal, its own form, and its own deadline. Reading the right cycle against the right tax type is the discipline that keeps the calendar clean.

This article walks each cycle. The audience is mixed — individuals filing a personal income tax self-assessment, salaried readers wanting to understand the PAYE picture from the filing-cycle side, business owners filing CIT or VAT or WHT, and employers reconciling the monthly PAYE schedule with the annual Form H1 return. Where a section applies to one audience more than another, the article names which.

The cluster's deeper walkthroughs sit alongside this filing-cycle overview. The employee-side PAYE picture lives at paye. The employer-side payroll obligations live at payroll tax. The VAT walkthrough and the state-IRS reference round out the cluster in the forthcoming Batch 4.

The Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025 and the Nigeria Tax Act 2025, signed by the President on 26 June 2025 and effective from 1 January 2026, consolidated Nigerian federal tax administration and revised the rate framework across PIT, CIT, VAT, and WHT.

For the filing-cycle picture specifically:

The portal landscape during 2026 is in transition. The legacy FIRS TaxProMax filing platform at taxpromax.firs.gov.ng remains operational for taxpayers whose profile has not yet migrated to the new Rev360 platform and for filings against the pre-2026 legacy 10-digit TIN format. The new Rev360 platform — accessible through the NRS portals at nrs.gov.ng and selfservice.nrs.gov.ng — is the canonical surface for taxpayers issued the 13-digit Tax ID from 1 January 2026. State-IRS portals (LIRS at lirs.gov.ng, FCT-IRS at fctirs.gov.ng, OYIRS at oyirs.oy.gov.ng, and the equivalents) operate their own PIT and PAYE filing surfaces and have updated through Q1 2026 to read the 13-digit Tax ID format.

The reader's practical takeaway is to confirm which platform the taxpayer profile has been issued against before opening any filing surface. NRS communications during the transition window confirm the active platform per Tax ID; where there is doubt the support desk at selfservice.nrs.gov.ng resolves the routing question before the filing attempt.

A return goes to one authority. Routing it to the wrong one returns 'not in our jurisdiction' rather than 'received', and is the most common source of compounded confusion at first filing.

For filing specifically, the authority split is operational:

• Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) receives CIT, VAT, WHT (federal-side), Capital Gains Tax for companies, Stamp Duty on company instruments, and non-resident regime filings. Filing surface: the Rev360 platform via selfservice.nrs.gov.ng or the legacy TaxProMax during the transition.
• State Internal Revenue Service receives PIT self-assessment for resident individuals, PAYE schedules from employers paying employees resident in the state, state-side WHT (where the deducting party is an individual or unincorporated entity), and state-side capital gains for individuals. Filing surface: the state IRS portal — lirs.gov.ng, fctirs.gov.ng, oyirs.oy.gov.ng, and the equivalents. The relevant state IRS is determined by residence for individuals and by location of the PAYE-paying establishment for employers.
• Joint Revenue Board (JRB) does not receive direct filings — it operates the central Tax ID infrastructure that both NRS and the state IRSes query against, and coordinates federal-state revenue administration.

A salaried employee whose employer remits PAYE to LIRS does not also need to remit anything to NRS — the federal-side authority does not receive PIT filings. A company filing CIT to NRS does not separately file the same figures with the state IRS — the federal-tax authorities do not duplicate. The discipline is to match the tax type to the authority before opening any portal.

CIT is the federal corporate income tax. Every CAC-registered company files CIT annually regardless of trading activity; a dormant company files a nil return.

1. 1
   Confirm the company's accounting year-end and compute the filing deadline
2. 2
   Prepare the financial statements and the supporting schedules
3. 3
   Open the NRS filing platform against the Tax ID
4. 4
   Complete the CIT return form and attach the supporting schedules
5. 5
   Generate the assessment, pay through Remita, and download the acknowledgement

CIT filing is free at the platform. The cost is the tax itself plus the 4% Development Levy for medium and large companies. Late-filing penalties under CITA are ₦25,000 in the first month and ₦5,000 each subsequent month, plus interest on unpaid assessment at the CBN rate plus a published margin. Where the filing record has a gap, the route to restore the filing position is to file the late return with the penalty alongside; the tax clearance certificate application reads against the cleaned record once the back filing is settled.

PIT self-assessment is the annual return for individuals with non-PAYE-only income. A salaried employee with only PAYE income does not file separately; the employer's PAYE remittance and the Form H1 annual return discharge the personal obligation.

1. 1
   Confirm the state IRS of residence
2. 2
   Sign in at the state IRS portal against the Tax ID
3. 3
   Compile the year's income figures
4. 4
   Complete the PIT self-assessment return form
5. 5
   Pay the PIT figure through Remita and download the acknowledgement

PIT self-assessment filing is free at the state IRS portal. Late-filing penalties under PITA sit at 10% of the unpaid PIT plus interest at the CBN rate plus margin per month of delay. The state IRS support desks publish guidance on the back-filing route where a self-employed taxpayer has fallen behind across multiple years.

VAT is a monthly return for VAT-registered entities. Registration triggers at the ₦25 million annual turnover threshold under the NTAA 2026 framework; below the threshold an entity is not required to register and does not file the monthly return.

1. 1
   Confirm VAT registration status
2. 2
   Compile the month's output VAT and input VAT figures
3. 3
   Open the NRS filing platform and the VAT return surface
4. 4
   Submit the return and pay any net VAT through Remita
5. 5
   Download the filing acknowledgement and the payment confirmation

VAT filing is free at the NRS platform. The cost is the net VAT remittable. Late-filing penalties under the VAT Act sit at ₦50,000 in the first month of default and ₦25,000 for each subsequent month plus interest on any unpaid VAT at the CBN rate plus margin. The forthcoming VAT article in this cluster covers the registration walkthrough, the rate framework, and the input-VAT recovery rules in fuller detail.

WHT is the advance income tax that the payer of certain transactions deducts at source and remits to NRS (for federal-side WHT, where the deducting party is a corporate counterparty) or to the state IRS (for state-side WHT, where the deducting party is an individual or unincorporated entity).

1. 1
   Identify the WHT-attracting payments made in the month
2. 2
   Compute the WHT per transaction
3. 3
   Compile the monthly WHT schedule
4. 4
   File the WHT return and pay the remittance through Remita
5. 5
   Issue the WHT credit note to each beneficiary after remittance

WHT filing and remittance is free at the platform. The cost is the WHT figure itself, which flows from the deducting party's bank account to NRS or the state IRS as advance tax on behalf of the beneficiary. Late-remittance penalties sit at 10% of the unpaid figure plus interest at the CBN rate plus margin.

PAYE is the employer-side monthly deduction from each employee's salary, remitted to the State Internal Revenue Service of the employee's state of residence. The employer acts as agent for the state IRS in calculating, deducting, and remitting on the employee's behalf.

1. 1
   Run the monthly payroll and compute PAYE per employee
2. 2
   Compile the monthly PAYE schedule per state IRS
3. 3
   Generate the Remita Retrieval Reference per state IRS
4. 4
   Pay the PAYE through Remita against each state IRS
5. 5
   Download the filing acknowledgement and the payment confirmation

PAYE remittance is free at the state IRS portal. The cost is the PAYE figure itself, which the employer deducts from the employee's gross salary and remits as advance tax on the employee's behalf. The employee's payslip-side picture sits at paye; the employer-side obligation cycle sits at payroll tax.

A filing that has missed its deadline does not invalidate the underlying obligation; it adds the late-filing penalty and lengthens the route to a clean Tax Clearance Certificate. The route to restore the filing record depends on the tax type.

• Late CIT filing. File the return through the standard NRS Rev360 surface (or the legacy TaxProMax during the transition). The platform computes the late-filing penalty (₦25,000 in the first month, ₦5,000 each subsequent month) alongside the underlying CIT figure. Pay the combined assessment through Remita. The filing record is restored once the assessment is paid; the tax clearance certificate application reads against the cleaned record.
• Late PIT self-assessment. File at the state IRS portal of residence. The portal computes the 10% PITA late-filing penalty plus interest at the CBN rate plus margin per month of delay. Pay through Remita. Where the back filing covers several years, the state IRS support desk can advise on a payment-plan arrangement.
• Late VAT return. File at the NRS surface; the platform computes the ₦50,000 first-month / ₦25,000 subsequent-month penalty under the VAT Act plus interest on unpaid VAT. Late VAT remittance is the most operationally disruptive late-filing case because the monthly cycle is tight and a single missed month complicates the input-VAT recovery position for the next month.
• Late WHT remittance. File at the NRS or state IRS surface depending on the deducting party. The platform computes the 10% late-remittance penalty plus interest. The beneficiary-side WHT credit notes cannot issue until the remittance is settled; suppliers cannot claim credit against an unsettled remittance.
• Late PAYE remittance. Address through the state IRS of the affected employee. The portal accepts a back-remittance covering the missed months with the 10% PITA late-remittance penalty plus interest per month of delay. The employer-side recovery sequence is covered in fuller detail at payroll tax.

The shared pattern across the five late-filing cases is that the route to restore compliance is to file the back return with the penalty alongside, and to then run the standard compliance flow (TCC application, downstream surface) against the cleaned record. Late-filing penalty figures published in the relevant Act are the floor — the NRS or state IRS may layer interest on top at the CBN rate plus a published margin, and the longer the delay the larger the cumulative figure.

The five monthly and annual cycles intersect at year-end in three reconciliation steps that bear on the next year's filing position.

• Form H1 employer reconciliation. The annual employer return summarises every employee's gross income, reliefs, taxable income, PAYE deducted, and PAYE remitted across the twelve months. Form H1 is due to each state IRS where any employee was resident during the year, by 31 January of the year following the year of assessment. The state IRS reconciles the H1 against the monthly PAYE schedules to confirm the annual position per employee.
• CIT-WHT reconciliation. The CIT return for a company reads against the WHT credit notes received from corporate counterparties through the year; the WHT credits offset the CIT figure due, and where credits exceed CIT the excess is claimable as a refund or rolled to the next year. The chartered accountant or in-house finance team aligns the WHT credit-note register against the supplier-side payments throughout the year.
• VAT annual reconciliation. The twelve monthly VAT returns reconcile against the audited accounts at year-end. Any input VAT not claimed during the year through the monthly cycle may be claimable on a backdated basis subject to the VAT Act's claim window; the reconciliation reads the input-VAT register against the purchase ledger.

These three reconciliation steps are the substantive work behind a clean year-end position. Skipping them does not break the immediate filing cycle but produces unresolved positions that surface at the next year's TCC application, at the next CIT filing, or at any procurement-side surface that reads the entity's compliance status. The chartered accountant or in-house finance team typically blocks dedicated calendar time at year-end for the reconciliation work.

The filing-cycle question connects out to the deeper walkthroughs across the Tax cluster and beyond.

• PAYE — the employee-side payslip-perspective view of PAYE, useful for a salaried reader wanting to understand what the employer deducts and remits.
• Payroll tax — the employer-side obligation cycle covering employee onboarding to state IRS, monthly PAYE remittance, and the Form H1 year-end return.
• How to get a TIN in Nigeria — the upstream identifier walkthrough; the 13-digit Tax ID is the figure every filing surface reads.
• How to verify a Nigerian TIN — the verification walkthrough; a verified counterparty Tax ID determines the WHT rate that applies.
• Tax clearance certificate — the compliance document the cleaned filing record enables; the three-year-history check reads against the filings.
• Tax payment pending — the diagnostic walkthrough for any Remita-routed tax payment that has stuck between bank, Remita, and the institution dashboard.
• How to open a Nigerian bank account — the banking-side context for the Tier 2 and Tier 3 corporate accounts that tax-payment routes flow through.
• Tier 1 bank account — the lower-tier banking context for an individual taxpayer's personal-side filing payments.