Client taxes Achekam will not compute
Which Nigerian and Kenyan client tax profiles Achekam refuses as assessment required, which carry sector warnings, and how a firm should work them instead.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in Nigeria, Kenya
Most tax software tries to compute everything. When it meets a client it does not really understand, it produces a figure anyway, and the figure looks just as authoritative as the ones it gets right. The firm finds out only when the assessment arrives.
Achekam takes the opposite approach for Nigerian and Kenyan clients. Where the tax depends on a specialised regime its rule book does not hold, it refuses to compute and says that an assessment is required. Where a sector has rules it does not hold, it warns. This article lists those cases, explains why the refusal is useful rather than a failure, and sets out how to handle such clients.
Specialised regimes refused as assessment required
In Nigeria, once its rules are approved, Achekam's Revenue Service Centre computes company income tax with the Development Levy and the minimum effective tax rate check, VAT, withholding tax, capital gains and stamp duty. Specialised regimes are refused as assessment required:
- petroleum;
- extractive industries;
- non-resident digital businesses.
In Kenya, once its rules are approved, Achekam computes corporation tax, instalment tax, VAT, withholding tax, turnover tax, capital gains tax and stamp duty. Extractive, petroleum and non-resident digital profiles are refused as assessment required.
"Assessment required" means what it says: a professional must work out the tax under the regime that applies, because the general rules would give a wrong answer. The refusal is the system admitting the limits of its rule book, which is exactly what a reviewer wants it to do.
Sector warnings in Nigeria
A second group of Nigerian clients is not refused but flagged. Banking, insurance, telecommunications and capital markets clients carry a warning that the sector's rules are not in the rule book. The general computation runs, but it may miss provisions that apply only to that sector.
Treat the warning as a review instruction. For a bank or insurer, the general company income tax computation is a starting point, and someone with sector experience must check it against the rules specific to that industry before it is approved.
| Client type | Nigeria | Kenya |
|---|---|---|
| Petroleum, extractive, non-resident digital | Refused: assessment required | Refused: assessment required |
| Banking, insurance, telecom, capital markets | Computed, with a sector warning | Computed once rules are approved; check sector rules yourself |
| Other companies | Computed once rules are approved | Computed once rules are approved |
The NRS summary of the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 describes the Act as the main law on who and what is taxed, covering taxable persons and income, chargeable income and deductions, tax rates and the new fossil fuel surcharge. It is a useful first read before working on an energy-sector client.
Rules awaiting approval
Refusals for specialised regimes are permanent features. A broader limit applies to every client for now. As shipped, Achekam computes no Nigerian or Kenyan tax figure, because the tax rules ship awaiting approval by Achekam's platform administrators and firms cannot approve them. Every figure was seeded "under review", and Achekam computes nothing from a figure until a platform administrator approves it.
Three narrower limits sit on top:
- Three contested Nigerian figures, the small-company turnover, the minimum effective tax rate turnover threshold and the PAYE remittance day, are not used until one platform administrator chooses a candidate with a reason and a different administrator approves it. Until then a company's size class shows as undetermined.
- Achekam holds no Nigerian tax rule for periods before 1 January 2026 and refuses to compute them.
- Kenyan rules whose start date the research did not find begin on 1 January 2026 in Achekam, so earlier Kenyan periods are refused.
Before relying on any computed figure, check in your workspace whether the relevant rules are approved.
Working these clients outside Achekam
For a refused client, the tax work happens in the firm's own tools, by people who know the regime. A sensible approach:
- Identify the clients concerned at acceptance, not at the deadline. A client producing oil or gas, a mining company or a foreign digital platform with local users should be flagged when the engagement is planned.
- Assign a preparer and a reviewer with experience of the regime, and record who they are.
- Build the computation in a workbook, with every figure traced to the client's records and to the provision that applies.
- Have it reviewed by a second person and approved by a partner before the client sees it.
The same discipline Achekam applies to computed returns, preparation, review and approval by different people, is worth keeping for these clients too.
Keeping the record in Achekam anyway
A refused computation does not mean the client disappears from the firm's systems. Keep the client's work where the rest of the firm can find it. The Document Centre is a vault with a folder per client, where staff upload files, keep versions and search, so the workbook, the source records, the approval and the filing receipt can sit in the client's folder.
Filing is the same for every client. Achekam does not file Nigerian or Kenyan returns; a person files on Rev360 or iTax and uploads the portal's receipt for someone else to verify. Nigerian company income tax from 2026 covers the computation for ordinary companies, the minimum effective tax rate is explained in Nigeria's minimum effective tax rate, and the firm's own returns are covered in keeping the firm's own tax returns.
A client list to check
Go through your Nigerian and Kenyan client list this month and mark every client in a specialised regime or a warned sector. For each one, name the person who will compute its tax and the reviewer who knows the regime, before the next return falls due.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
