Your company made under ₦100m. Do you still file?

Yes, you still file, even if your company qualifies for the small company tax rate of zero. Being exempt from company income tax and the development levy is not the same as being exempt from filing. The fact sheet for this article does not carry a fixed penalty figure for late or missed company filing, and rather than guess at a number, the honest position is that it varies by case. Confirm the exact figure that applies to you at /academy or with the tax authority before you assume a ₦0 tax bill means nothing is at stake.

What actually makes you a "small company"

The exemption is not based on turnover alone. It is a two part test, and you need to pass both parts to qualify. The diagram below sets out the two arms and what happens if either one is breached.

• Your turnover must be ₦100,000,000 or less
• Your fixed assets must be ₦250,000,000 or less

If either number is above the limit, you do not qualify as a small company, and the standard company income tax rules apply instead. A business with turnover of ₦60,000,000 but fixed assets worth ₦300,000,000 (property, heavy equipment, vehicles) fails the fixed assets arm, so it does not get the exemption.

Both arms have to hold at the same time. Pass one and fail the other, and you are back in the standard regime.

What "small company" actually gets you, and why filing still applies

If you meet both parts of the test, your company is exempt from company income tax (normally 30% of assessable profit) and the development levy (normally 4%). That is the benefit. It is not an exemption from registering, from keeping records, or from filing your annual return. Filing and tax liability are two separate things: one tells the tax authority what your business did in the year, the other tells you what you owe, and a company can have the second number sitting at zero while the first is still due. That obligation stays whether the amount owed is ₦0 or ₦30,000,000, and it does not change again anywhere below.

Filing every year, even at zero, also protects you. It creates a clean paper trail showing your turnover and fixed assets stayed within the small company limits, which is exactly what you would need to prove if your qualification is ever questioned. Miss a filing year and you have a gap in that record, right when you might need it.

What compares to the standard company regime

If your company does not qualify as small, here is what you are dealing with instead.

Notice the deadline does not change. Small or not, exempt or not, you have six months from your financial year end to file the company return. That date does not move based on your tax bill.

If your company incorporated partway through the year

The six month deadline still runs from your financial year end, not from a full twelve month cycle. Your first accounting period will simply be shorter, covering incorporation to your chosen year end, and the same six month filing window applies from that date.

Other obligations that keep running regardless

Small company status only affects company income tax and the development levy. Your VAT and PAYE deadlines, along with the individual filing deadline, are set out below, and none of them shift because your company qualifies as small: VAT return by the 21st of the following month, monthly PAYE remittance by the 10th of the following month, employer annual PAYE return by 31 January, individual (personal) tax return by 31 March.

If you are a sole proprietor rather than a registered company, remember your personal income is taxed under the individual bands, not the company rates, and rent relief (20% of annual rent, capped at ₦500,000) can apply to your personal filing. To claim it, keep your tenancy agreement and your rent payment receipts on file, since those are the documents that back up the figure you enter. The consolidated relief allowance that used to apply is gone, so do not build any calculation around it.

Working out where your business sits

Say, for illustration only, your company turned over ₦85,000,000 last year, and your fixed assets, machinery, office equipment, a delivery van, add up to ₦40,000,000. Both figures sit under their respective limits (₦100,000,000 and ₦250,000,000), so you qualify as a small company. Your company income tax and development levy for the year are ₦0. You still file the return within six months of your financial year end.

Now say turnover was the same ₦85,000,000, but the company owns a warehouse and equipment valued at ₦280,000,000. Fixed assets are over the ₦250,000,000 limit, so the small company exemption does not apply, even though turnover alone would have qualified. In that case, tax is worked out as 30% of assessable profit plus the 4% development levy, and both are due when you file.

You can run either scenario, or your own turnover and fixed assets figures, through the tax calculator to see where you land, since the difference between qualifying and not qualifying changes your tax bill from zero to a real figure.

If you have not registered a company yet

Everything above assumes you already have a company on record. If you are starting from nothing, the order is different. First, register the company itself and get your tax identification number, you can confirm or start that at /find-tax-id. Once you have an ID and your first financial year end is set, the six month filing clock and the small company test both start applying to you from that year end, using whichever turnover and fixed assets figures your accounts show for that period. There is no filing to backdate before the company exists, but the obligation begins from incorporation, not from your first sale.

What to do next

Check your last set of accounts for two numbers: total turnover and total fixed assets. If both are under the limits, you qualify as a small company and your filing should reflect ₦0 due, but the filing itself still needs to go in by six months after your financial year end. If you are not sure how your business is currently registered or what has been filed before, start with /find-tax-id to confirm your details are correct, then use /app/file to prepare and submit the return itself. If the rules around small company status, turnover and fixed assets are new to you, the /academy has a short course that walks through it without the jargon, including the penalty figures that apply if you miss a filing.

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