Your filing calendar

Most Nigerian tax penalties are not for getting a number wrong. They are for being late. The computation is the hard part; the calendar is the expensive part.

Here is everything, grouped by how often it comes round.

Every month

These recur on the same day of every month, for the previous month's activity.

| By the | Obligation | Who | | --- | --- | --- | | 10th | PAYE remittance to your state's revenue service | Employers | | 14th | VAT withheld at source — remittance | Companies and VAT-registered businesses | | 21st | VAT return and payment | VAT-registered businesses, companies, self-employed | | 21st | Federal WHT remittance to the NRS | Companies and employers | | 30th | State WHT remittance to the relevant SIRS | Companies and employers |

Two things trip people up here.

The VAT return is a filing, not just a payment. You file by the 21st even if your net VAT is nil or you are in a refund position. A nil return is still a return, and not filing it is still late filing.

The two WHT dates are nine days apart and depend on who you paid. Deducted from a company or a non-resident? Federal, 21st, to the NRS. Deducted from an individual or an unincorporated body? State, 30th, to the state revenue service. It has nothing to do with which one you are. See WHT: final tax or credit?.

Every year

31 January — employer annual PAYE return. Every employer files a return of emoluments and PAYE deducted for all employees, for the previous year. This is separate from your monthly remittances; making all twelve payments does not discharge it.

31 March — individual income tax return. You file with the revenue service of the state you live in, for the previous year. Two states have moved the 2026 date:

• Lagos — 14 April
• FCT — 30 April

If you live anywhere else, 31 March. The deadline reminder and PIT-by-state tool will confirm the date and the authority for your state.

A common assumption worth killing: being on PAYE does not automatically discharge your filing obligation. If you have income from anywhere else — freelance work, rent, a side business, foreign income — you file. Your employer's return covers your employment income, not you.

Tied to your financial year-end

Companies income tax return — six months after your year-end. Not a fixed calendar date. It moves with your accounts.

If your year-end is 31 December, your CIT return is due 30 June. If your year-end is 30 June, it is due 31 December. You file the self-assessment return with audited accounts.

Newly incorporated companies get 18 months from incorporation for their first return. This is a genuine grace period, and it is the one deadline where the answer is usually later than people fear.

The tax calendar tool will lay out your twelve months from your year-end and export the dates to your calendar.

What being late costs

Late filing: ₦100,000 for the first month of default, then ₦50,000 for each further month. It accrues per month, so a return that is six months late has cost ₦350,000 before anyone looks at the number on it.

Under the old regime this was ₦25,000 and ₦5,000. It went up fourfold and tenfold respectively in 2026. If your mental model of "the penalty is small enough to absorb" was formed before this year, update it.

Late payment: 10% of the tax, plus interest.

Interest runs at the CBN Monetary Policy Rate plus a spread. The MPR is currently 26.5%, and the spread has not yet been set by the NRS — so any interest figure you see, including ours, is a floor rather than a prediction. The penalty estimator shows the exposure with that caveat attached.

WHT has its own, harsher, penalties: 40% for failing to deduct, 10% for deducting and failing to remit.

The pattern worth internalising

Filing penalties are fixed amounts that accrue monthly. Payment penalties are a percentage of the tax, plus interest.

That has a practical consequence: if you cannot pay, file anyway. Filing late and paying late are two separate defaults with two separate penalties. Filing on time and paying late costs you the 10% and the interest. Doing neither costs you those plus ₦100,000 and counting. There is no version of this where not filing helps.

A worked shape of the year

For a company with a 31 December year-end that employs people and is VAT-registered, a normal month looks like: PAYE by the 10th, VAT withheld by the 14th, VAT return and federal WHT by the 21st, state WHT by the 30th. Five obligations, every month, on four dates.

On top of that: the employer annual PAYE return on 31 January, the individual returns of anyone who needs them by 31 March, and the CIT return on 30 June.

Fifteen dates in a year is not a memory problem, it is a calendar problem. Put them in the calendar once.

Before you rely on any of this

Deadlines shift. States extend. The Lagos and FCT extensions above are for 2026 specifically and may not repeat. Every date here comes from the rate reference and carries the date we last checked it, but confirm anything load-bearing with your revenue authority.

Read the disclaimer — this is a calendar, not advice, and it does not know your circumstances.