How to File Personal Income Tax in Nigeria (Step by Step)

Every Nigerian who earns income is required to file a personal income tax return every year — even if your income sits below the ₦800,000 tax-free threshold and you owe zero naira. Filing and paying are two different obligations. You can owe nothing and still be required to file.

This confuses more people than almost anything else in the system, especially salaried employees who assume their employer's PAYE deductions cover everything. They don't. Here's exactly what's required, when, and how to do it correctly.

Filing is a compliance action with consequences that go beyond the single year being reported: it determines whether you'll be able to get a Tax Clearance Certificate, whether past underpayments can be corrected without heavy enforcement, and how easily banks and employers accept your records in the future. The remainder of this article walks through the practical steps and the places where people commonly slip up, so you can treat filing as a repeatable yearly task rather than an annual scramble.

Watch: filing your personal income tax return, start to finish. Handle: @TaxC Nigeria, on Instagram, and Tiktok.

The deadline: March 31

Individual annual returns are due March 31 covering the previous year's income. This is separate from monthly PAYE remittance (due the 10th of each month, which is your employer's responsibility, not yours) and separate from corporate filing deadlines.

Some states have granted short extensions in past years — Lagos and FCT, for example, have each pushed their own deadlines a few weeks in different years. Extensions aren't guaranteed and aren't always announced early, so treat March 31 as your real deadline. If your state grants extra time, take it as a buffer, not a plan. Practically that means starting to assemble documents in January, reconciling your employer pay records against your bank and pension statements, and giving yourself at least two weeks to fix issues such as missing payslips or mismatched names on your TIN and NIN records.

One common timing mistake is waiting until after March 31 to resolve disputes with an employer over PAYE amounts. Those disputes take time and often require written confirmations from payroll — if you're aiming for a clean annual return, begin payroll queries early so you have proof if the portal or a tax officer asks for clarification.

Who needs to file?

You need to file if you earn any income — salary, business income, rental income, freelance payments, consultancy fees, commissions, or investment dividends. If you're self-employed or freelance, see our guide on tax for freelancers and self-employed Nigerians for how direct assessment differs from standard PAYE filing. If you had no income at all for the year, you should still file a nil return. This keeps your record compliant and is usually a requirement for getting a Tax Clearance Certificate later.

Edge cases often cause confusion. For example, casual or gig work paid into your bank but not reported on payslips still counts as taxable income. Similarly, a second small rental property or occasional sales of personal items that turn into a business stream may suddenly move you from a simple PAYE filer into the realm of self-assessment. When in doubt, treat money received in exchange for services as reportable and make a note to clarify classification the next filing year or with a professional.

Another common source of error is double-reporting income that already had PAYE withheld by a foreign employer or by a Nigerian employer paying through foreign payroll. These scenarios have specific treatments under the law and frequently require additional documentation; flag them early so you know whether to claim a foreign tax credit or make a note to discuss it with Ada Pro or your tax officer.

What documents do you need?

• ✓ Your TIN, linked to your NIN
• ✓ NIN or BVN
• ✓ Payslips or salary records for the year
• ✓ Bank statements (for business or freelance income)
• ✓ Rent receipts, if claiming rent relief
• ✓ Pension and NHF contribution records
• ✓ Records of any assets sold during the year (property, shares, equipment), since disposals now factor into your return

Practical tip: keep a single folder (digital or physical) for the tax year and add items to it as you receive them. That reduces the end-of-year scramble and makes it easier to answer portal or audit queries. If your TIN and NIN don't match exactly, get that corrected before filing — matching identity records is one of the most frequent reasons returns get delayed or flagged.

How to file in Lagos (etax.lirs.net)

1. 1Go to etax.lirs.net and create an account using BVN/NIN + personal details
2. 2Save your Payer ID and set a password
3. 3Log in and go to Returns → My Tax Returns → File Returns
4. 4Fill in all income sources — salary, business, rental, allowances
5. 5Claim deductions — pension (8%), NHF (2.5%), rent relief (20% of annual rent, capped at ₦500,000)
6. 6Upload payslips and rent receipts, then submit
7. 7Pay any tax owed and download your acknowledgement receipt

For the full list of deductions worth claiming beyond these, see our guide on legally reducing your tax in Nigeria.

What this looks like in practice: most Lagos filers start by uploading their payslips and pension records, then fill in a basic income summary. The portal will often pre-fill certain fields if your Payer ID has previous submissions; review these carefully because carry-forward mistakes from prior years are a hard-to-catch source of errors. If you claim rent relief, be prepared to upload receipts and a short explanatory note for any months where the amount paid differs from what your landlord issued.

How to file in Abuja/FCT

1. 1Visit fctirs.gov.ng and register or log in
2. 2Go to Tax Returns → File Returns → File a New Return
3. 3Enter assessment date and year, fill in all income and deduction details
4. 4Submit and pay via Remita (online or at any bank)

In the FCT system, payment channels and form layouts can differ year-to-year; keep a screenshot or PDF copy of the final submission acknowledgement — it is the simplest proof if a bank or employer later asks for confirmation of your filing. Also, confirm whether your submission generated a unique reference number immediately after payment; sometimes the portal delays issuing that until it reconciles Remita payments.

Other states

Every state has its own IRS portal. Search "[your state] Internal Revenue Service" to find yours. The process is broadly similar everywhere: register, log in, declare income, claim deductions, submit, then pay if you owe anything. Some states also route certain filings through the federal NRS platform where their own systems are still catching up — if you're unsure which applies to you, your state IRS website will usually say.

Two practical differences across states worth watching: the documentation accepted as proof for rent relief and how aggressively a state reconciles employer PAYE records against filed returns. In some states, you may be asked to present physical copies at the IRS office after an online submission; others keep everything digital. If you live in a state that historically enforces strict reconciliation, file earlier and keep tighter records of employer communications.

Filing vs. paying — why the distinction matters

A lot of the confusion around March 31 comes down to one thing: people conflate filing with paying. Filing is declaring your income and deductions for the year. Paying only applies if that declaration shows you owe tax after the ₦800,000 exemption and any reliefs. You can file and owe nothing. You cannot skip filing just because you expect to owe nothing — the nil return itself is the compliance step.

In practice, separate the tasks: prepare and submit the return first, then use the portal's payment instructions to settle any balance. Many people make the mistake of delaying submission until they have funds to pay — that increases penalty exposure and complicates later disputes about how much was actually owed on the filing date. If you genuinely cannot pay, submit the return and then engage with the tax authority about payment plans; submission itself reduces some enforcement pressure.

When to get professional help

Most salaried employees can file a straightforward return without professional help. You should consider a tax professional if you have multiple income streams (rental + freelance + salary), sold assets during the year, worked across state lines, have overseas income, or if your employer's PAYE records disagree materially with your bank statements. Professionals can also help structure the submission so it minimises avoidable audits and ensure you claim legitimate reliefs without exposing yourself to disallowed positions. Ada Pro is positioned to help with many of these questions, but complex cases or disputes with an employer sometimes still require a human tax practitioner.

Finally, keep a short annual note of any issues you encountered while filing — mismatched identity fields, missing receipts, or portal errors — and store supporting evidence. That makes the following year's filing faster and gives you a paper trail if an auditor asks why you claimed a particular relief or how you treated a piece of income.

Common questions