What your staff need to file their own tax returns
What a Nigerian employer should give employees, from tax deduction cards to payslips, so they can file their own annual personal income tax returns.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Nigeria
Every January, some of your staff will ask the same question in different words: "PAYE is deducted from my salary every month, so why do I have to file a return as well, and what do I need from you?" The first half is about the law. The second half is about you, because most of what an employee needs to file comes from the employer's payroll.
This article explains why salaried employees in Nigeria still file their own returns, what the NRS says they need, how the employer's own annual return relates to theirs, and what you can hand each employee from Achekam's payroll, including one gap to plan around.
Employees still file their own return
The NRS says all Nigerian residents aged 18 and above earning income from Nigerian sources must file personal income tax returns, and it names salaried employees among them, alongside the self-employed and people with investment, rental or business income.
The Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025 makes the same point from the employer's side. Section 14(3) says employees must still file their own annual return of income from all sources, even though the employer files a return covering them. PAYE deducted through the year is tax paid on account; the employee's own return is where the year is settled.
According to the NRS, individuals file on Form A, B or H, electronically through the NRS or their State Internal Revenue Service e-filing portal, on paper at the nearest NRS or SIRS office, or through a tax professional. Tell staff which route your adviser recommends for people in their position.
What the NRS says an employee needs
The NRS says individuals filing a personal income tax return need:
- their Tax ID;
- the completed return forms;
- evidence of income, such as payslips or bank statements;
- receipts supporting any reliefs claimed;
- tax deduction cards from employers.
Two of those five come straight from you: payslips, and the tax deduction card showing what was earned and deducted. A third, the receipts for reliefs, overlaps with what employees should already have given you if they claimed reliefs through payroll.
The NRS explains who must file, the forms, the channels and the documents needed on its individual income tax page.
How the employer's annual return fits
Under the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025, an employer must file a return with the relevant tax authority for all emoluments paid to its employees not later than 31st January each year. It covers every employee employed in the preceding year and shows, for each, the gross emoluments, total deductions, net emoluments and tax deducted.
Those four figures per employee are the heart of what each employee needs. If the tax deduction card you give an employee and the line for them on your annual return show different numbers, one of them is wrong, and the tax authority may notice before you do. Prepare both from the same figures.
In Achekam, the Nigerian annual employer return is prepared from approved pay runs, alongside the monthly schedules for PAYE per State, pension, NHF and NSITF. Use that annual data as the single source for each employee's year-end figures.
Payslips and self-service downloads
Payslips are the easy part. In Achekam, payslips are PDFs carrying the business's logo and details, downloadable or e-mailed one per person, and an employer setting sends them automatically when a run is approved, with a delivery log. E-mailing needs an e-mail service configured on the server.
Staff with a login linked to their payroll record can also help themselves. Through self-service they can download their own payslips, apply for leave, and submit expense claims, detail changes or a new bank account for payroll to decide. An employee who needs twelve months of payslips for a return can download them without waiting for payroll.
The gap: no Nigerian annual certificate in self-service
Here is the limit to plan around. Achekam's self-service shows only South African year-end tax certificates, IRP5 and IT3(a). Nigerian annual figures are not available to employees in self-service; they are only on the payroll side.
So the tax deduction card is something the employer prepares and hands out. Achekam has no document described as a Nigerian tax deduction card. Use the employee's line from the annual employer return data, set out gross emoluments, total deductions, net emoluments and tax deducted for the year, and present it in the form your State revenue service expects. Have it checked by a second person against the annual return before it goes out.
A year-end pack for staff
Aim to give each employee, early in the year:
- a tax deduction card for the previous year, prepared from the annual employer return data and checked;
- a reminder that their payslips are available through self-service, or a set of PDFs for those without a login;
- a note of the pension, NHF and other deductions made through payroll, with any relief claims they made;
- a reminder to have their Tax ID ready;
- the name of the person to ask about any figure they think is wrong.
Answer questions about figures before the employee files, not after. A correction to your annual return is far easier in February than in the middle of a dispute about an employee's assessment.
How PAYE is split by State and how the annual return is built is covered in PAYE by State and the annual employer return. The rates behind the figures are in Nigerian PAYE bands from 2026.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
