How to file tax on freelance foreign earnings in Nigeria

Those penalties come from the Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025, which took effect in January 2026. What you owe is a different question from how you file it, and what counts as taxable foreign income in Nigeria covers the first one, including the six tests that decide whether you're resident at all. For the wider set of rules in force this year, see Nigeria's money rules in 2026. This article explains what the rules say. It isn't tax advice, and if the amounts are real an accountant looking at your own numbers is worth more than any guide.

When is the deadline, and who do you file with?

31 March, for the previous year's income. A self-employed Nigerian files with the State Internal Revenue Service of the state they live in. The Nigeria Revenue Service, which used to be the FIRS, handles company tax rather than yours. Where your clients are based makes no difference to which office you file with.

That is the part most freelancers get wrong, because the national tax office is the one in the news. Your state's portal is where the return actually goes, and how far along it is depends on your state. Lagos files entirely online at etax.lirs.net, and so do Ogun and Edo on their own portals. Several states still run a mix of paper and online, which means a trip to the tax office with the form. Techpoint's walkthrough, published on 11 February 2026, lists the portals it has checked.

Do you need a Tax ID before you can file?

Yes. The Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025 requires anyone who earns income to register with the relevant tax authority and get a Tax ID, which is the number every return is filed against. Not registering carries ₦50,000 for the first month and ₦25,000 for each month it continues, under section 100(1), on Banwo & Ighodalo's reading of the Act.

What it means for you is that two clocks can be running at once. One starts when you should have registered and didn't. The other starts when a return was due and didn't arrive. Registering late doesn't reset the filing penalty, and filing doesn't clear the registration one, so a freelancer who has been earning in dollars for two years without a Tax ID is adding to both. Getting the Tax ID is the cheaper of the two problems to fix, and it has to happen first because you can't file without it.

What do you declare if all your clients are abroad?

Your worldwide income, added to anything you earned in Nigeria, converted into naira. A Nigerian tax resident's income is taxed in Nigeria wherever it arises and whether or not it's brought into the country, on PwC's summary of the residence rules. So dollars sitting in a dollar balance you haven't converted are still declarable, and bringing the money in through a bank rather than an app doesn't change the answer either way.

One thing to be careful about is which figure goes on the return. What you declare is what you earned, not what landed. If your provider took a receiving fee out of a $2,000 payment, the invoice was still $2,000 and that's the income. The fee is a cost you paid, not a reduction in what you were paid. The first ₦800,000 of your total income for the year is tax-free, and the rate rises in steps to a top of 25%. Take the band widths themselves from your state's portal rather than from an article, because published versions of the new table disagree about where the upper bands start. Gains on foreign shares follow their own rules, which whether Nigerians pay tax on US stock gains covers.

How do you work out the figure, step by step?

The last step surprises people, because the payment comes before the paperwork rather than after it. On the Lagos portal you settle the assessment first and submit the return afterwards, so leaving the money until the filing screen doesn't work.

1. List every foreign payment you received during the year, with the date each one landed.
2. Convert each one into naira at the Central Bank's official rate for that date. Not the black market rate, also called the parallel market rate, and not the rate your app gave you. The black market rate is the higher of the two, so using it overstates your income and your bill.
3. Add anything you earned in Nigeria in the same year. Foreign income isn't assessed on a separate scale, so a Nigerian retainer and a dollar invoice are added together.
4. Subtract the deductions you can claim, which are the next section.
5. Apply the current band table from your state's portal to what's left, and subtract any tax a client already withheld at source.
6. Pay the balance, then file the return, then keep the filing receipt.

What can you deduct?

Rent relief is the one freelancers miss most often. You can take 20% of your annual rent off your taxable income, capped at ₦500,000, and only rent you actually paid during the year you're filing for counts. On a ₦2.5 million rent that is the full ₦500,000 coming off the figure the bands are applied to.

The documents are what make a deduction stick, and they're the thing to gather before you open the portal rather than during:

• For rent relief: the rent receipt and the tenancy agreement.
• For pension, gratuity or insurance contributions: the statement or certificate from the provider.
• For every income stream: the statement showing what arrived and when, plus the invoice or platform agreement behind it.
• For anything a client or platform deducted: the withholding certificate, because that is what the credit rests on.

Where does Daya Borders fit?

Daya Borders takes 0% on incoming dollars and euros with no cap, against 0.8% with a $10 maximum on an ACH or FedNow deposit at Grey, checked on 9 November 2026. On a return you file yourself that gap matters more than it looks, because a 0% receive means the figure on your statement is the figure on your invoice, and you're not reconciling two numbers at the end of the year.

The account and routing details are in your own name, so the statement names you rather than an intermediary, which is the point at which a tax officer stops asking questions. What arrives can also stay in dollars or euros until you choose to convert. Worth being clear that holding doesn't delay anything: the income was taxable when you earned it, not when you converted it, so holding changes the rate you eventually get and changes nothing about the declaration.

Where Daya Borders doesn't help is the filing itself. Daya Borders isn't an accounting tool, it won't submit anything on your behalf, and it can't tell you which band you're in. What it gives you is a clean record of what arrived and when, which is the one thing you'll be asked for. Everything after that is you, your state's portal and, above a certain number, an accountant.

What happens if you file late, or don't file at all?

Failing to file carries ₦100,000 for the first month and ₦50,000 for every month after, under section 101 of the Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025. An incorrect or incomplete return is treated the same way and carries the same amounts, which BusinessDay's run-through of the Act sets out alongside the rest. Amounts you collected on someone else's behalf and failed to remit, such as withholding tax, carry their own penalty and interest on top under section 107.

The ₦800,000 tax-free band is worth one clarification here, because it is read as an exemption from filing and it isn't one. It takes the tax on the first ₦800,000 of your income to zero. The Act still expects a return each year without waiting for a demand, so a freelancer who earned ₦600,000 owes nothing and is still inside the filing requirement.

What should you do before 31 March?

1. Check you have a Tax ID, and register for one now if you don't, because you can't file without it.
2. Find your state's portal, or its tax office if the state still works on paper, and open an account there.
3. Download a full year of statements from wherever your foreign payments land, so you have the dates as well as the amounts.
4. Note the official rate against each payment date while you still have the statements open.
5. Gather the rent receipt, the tenancy agreement and any withholding certificates, so the deductions and credits survive a question.
6. If your foreign income is large, or it comes from more than one country, pay an accountant to check the figure before you submit it.