How to check if a TIN number is real and valid

The fastest way to check if a TIN is real is to run it through the Tax ID lookup. You type in the number, and it tells you straight away whether it is a valid, registered TIN or not. This matters most to landlords collecting tenant details and employers onboarding new staff, because a fake or mistyped TIN can cause problems later when you file.

Why you need to verify a TIN in the first place

If you are an employer, you file an annual PAYE return by 31 January that lists every employee and their TIN. If you are a landlord who deducts or reports on rental income involving a tenant's TIN for any tax documentation, an invalid number creates a mismatch on record. Either way, the number sitting on a form someone handed you is only useful if it actually exists in the system and belongs to that person or company.

People sometimes write down an old number, a number that belongs to a different entity, or simply invent digits because they do not have one yet. You will not know which of these you are dealing with just by looking at it.

How to actually verify it

Go to find-tax-id and enter the TIN you were given. The lookup checks it against the registered database and returns a result showing whether that number is active and valid. This takes a minute, and it is free, so there is no reason to file anything with an unverified TIN sitting in your records.

If the number comes back invalid, do not guess or correct it yourself. Ask the person to confirm their TIN directly from their registration certificate or their FIRS/tax authority correspondence, then run it again.

What if the person does not have a TIN yet

This happens often with new tenants and first time employees. Individuals get a TIN through registration with the tax authority, and this is a separate step from verification, since verification only works on numbers that already exist.

If you are an employer, you generally cannot complete proper payroll documentation for someone with no TIN, so it is worth pushing new hires to register before their first pay run rather than after. If you are a landlord, you may still proceed with a tenancy, but any tax paperwork tied to that tenant will need to wait until they have a valid number.

Worked example: an employer checking three new hires

Say you run a small business and just hired three people. Here is what each one gave you as their TIN, and what the lookup tool tells you.

For Chidinma, you proceed and use that TIN on your PAYE filing. For Bassey, you go back to him, ask him to confirm the number from his own documents, and re-check before you submit anything. For Uche, you tell her to register for a TIN first, since you cannot file her correctly without one.

This is exactly the kind of gap that causes rejected PAYE returns or mismatched records months later, and it costs nothing to catch it now.

Does verifying the TIN affect how much tax is owed

No. Verification only confirms the number is real. It does not change the tax calculation itself. But since you are already looking at an employee's records, it is worth understanding how their PAYE is actually worked out, because a valid TIN on the wrong tax figure is still a problem.

Take an employee earning ₦4,800,000 a year in salary, with no other income. After reliefs, suppose their taxable income comes to ₦4,500,000. Under the 2026 bands, the first ₦800,000 is taxed at 0%, and the next ₦3,700,000 (up to ₦3,000,000 of that is taxed at 15%, but the ₦3,700,000 straddles two bands, so let's break it down properly).

Bands are: 0% up to ₦800,000; 15% up to ₦3,000,000; 18% up to ₦12,000,000.

So on ₦4,500,000 taxable income:

• First ₦800,000 at 0% = ₦0
• Next ₦2,200,000 (to reach ₦3,000,000) at 15% = ₦330,000
• Remaining ₦1,500,000 (₦4,500,000 minus ₦3,000,000) at 18% = ₦270,000

Total annual tax = ₦600,000, or ₦50,000 a month.

Note the old Consolidated Relief Allowance no longer applies, it was repealed, so reliefs now come from specific allowances like rent relief where applicable, not a blanket consolidated figure. If this employee also pays rent and qualifies for rent relief, that is 20% of annual rent capped at ₦500,000, and it would have already been subtracted before you got to that ₦4,500,000 taxable figure. You can run the full calculation, including rent relief, through the tax calculator rather than doing it by hand each time.

What happens if you file with a wrong TIN

A rejected or flagged PAYE return means you have to go back, correct the record, and resubmit, which eats into time you do not have before the 31 January deadline. Monthly PAYE remittance is due by the 10th of the following month regardless, so errors compound if they are not caught early. The fact sheet does not specify an exact penalty figure for a wrong TIN on file, so if you are unsure what applies to a specific late or incorrect filing, confirm directly with the tax authority rather than assuming a number.

What about verifying a company's TIN

The same lookup tool works for company TINs as well as individual ones. If you are a landlord dealing with a corporate tenant, or an employer paying a vendor, run their TIN through find-tax-id the same way. A company that claims to be a small company (turnover of ₦100,000,000 or less and fixed assets of ₦250,000,000 or less) is still required to file even though it is exempt from company income tax and the development levy, so a valid TIN on file matters for them too, not just for larger companies paying the standard 30% plus 4% development levy.

A quick word on getting the basics right from the start

If you are new to handling PAYE, VAT or company filing obligations as an employer or landlord, it is worth going through the tax academy, which walks through registration, filing and common mistakes in eight short parts. Once you are ready to file, you can start directly through the app rather than juggling paper forms.

Verifying a TIN takes a minute. Sorting out a rejected filing because you skipped that minute takes considerably longer.

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