The ₦800,000 tax-free band, explained with real payslips

From 1 January 2026, the first ₦800,000 of your annual taxable income attracts zero tax. For a worker earning ₦100,000 a month, that's the difference between paying PAYE every month and paying nothing at all.

The bands above it changed too: 15% to ₦3m, 18% to ₦12m, 21% to ₦25m, 23% to ₦50m, and 25% beyond. Compared with the old Personal Income Tax Act rates, almost everyone below ₦20m sees a lower effective rate.

But there's a catch people miss: the old Consolidated Relief Allowance is gone. Your reliefs now come from specific items — pension, NHF, NHIS, life insurance premiums, and the new rent relief (20% of annual rent, capped at ₦500,000). If your employer's payroll software still applies CRA, your PAYE is being computed wrongly — and that's exactly the kind of thing a reconciliation filing catches.

Run your own numbers in the HopperTax calculator, then let the filing wizard reconcile what was actually withheld. Over-deductions become refund claims — and refunds now have a legal timeline under the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025.