Filing of PAYE for employers of labour is a seasonal exercise. It comes in the first month of every year. Employers of labour are mandated by section 81 of the Personal Income Tax Act (PITA) to file annual returns which contains the income paid to their employees, PAYE deducted and remitted to the relevant tax authorities on behalf of the employees in an assessment year.
A taxable person in Nigeria is required to remit his/her taxes to the State Internal Revenue Service (SIRS) in which he/she is resident regardless of where he/she works. Each SIRS has its prescribed forms in which income and taxes should be presented. Generally, the forms include; (a) form H1 which shows the cumulation of the monthly income earned by each employee and tax remitted on behalf of each employee, number of months worked for each employee for that particular year of assessment. (b) a schedule of monthly PAYE remittance for the year of assessment. (c) the current year gross income projection. The forms for the relevant States can be obtained from our website here.
What are the PAYE Filing Variations Across States?
Other States
All SIRS except for Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) and Rivers State Internal Revenue Service (RIRS) require employers of labour to submit their annual returns physically in the relevant SIRS.
Federal Capital Territory IRS
The Federal Capital Territory Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS) has adopted an email-filing system that allows employers to file their annual returns by mailing. In this system, the prescribed forms can be duly filled and sent to the IRS’s email address. This also eliminates the stress of
having to file manually.
Lagos State and Rivers State
The LIRS and RIRS have adopted the e-filing system that allows employers to file their annual returns online where the prescribed forms can be duly filled and uploaded on the IRS’ portal rather than the manual filing predominant in other states. This makes the annual returns filing
process for Lagos State and Rivers State seamless as the filing can be done at the comfort of their office or home as opposed to submitting the forms physically.
What Happens if I fail to file?
It is important for employers to file their annual returns for the year 2020 not later than the 31st of January 2021. Failure to comply attracts a penalty of N500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira Only). It is noteworthy to mention that any SIRS that has not adopted the e-filing system will have
a deadline of January 29, 2021 being the last working day before the statutory deadline of January 31, 2021.
