E-SERVICE · CERTIFICATION

Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC)

A Tax Clearance Certificate is the Service’s written statement that you have settled your tax for the three years immediately preceding the year of application. Section 85 of the Personal Income Tax Act requires it to be issued within two weeks, or a reason given.

What a TCC says and when you need it

A Tax Clearance Certificate states that, for each of the three years of assessment immediately preceding the current year, you were assessed to tax, the tax was fully paid, or no tax was due. It shows for each of those years your total income, the tax payable, the tax paid and any outstanding balance. It is not a certificate of good character or a licence to trade; it is a factual statement about your tax record.

You will need one to bid for or receive payment on a government contract, to register or renew registration on the State contractors list, to obtain or transfer a certificate of occupancy, to register a company vehicle, to apply for a trade or professional licence, to open certain corporate accounts, to change ownership of land, to obtain foreign exchange for business purposes, and in support of many visa applications.

Section 85(4) of the Personal Income Tax Act obliges the relevant tax authority to issue the certificate within two weeks of a valid application, or to give reasons for refusal in writing. The Service treats that as a hard service standard: applications that pass the fourteenth working day are escalated automatically to the Director of Assessment & Taxpayer Services.

Fees and validity

Applicant	Processing fee	Revenue head	Validity	Turnaround
Individual taxpayer	₦2,000	12020002	To 31 December of the year of issue	14 working days
Business name / enterprise	₦10,000	12020003	To 31 December of the year of issue	14 working days
Limited company (for its directors)	₦10,000 per director	12020003	To 31 December of the year of issue	14 working days
Reprint of a certificate already issued	₦1,000	12020004	As original	2 working days
Certified true copy of tax records	₦5,000 per year requested	12020004	n/a	5 working days

How to apply

Confirm your record is clean

Sign in and open your tax account. Every assessment for the last three years should show as Paid. Anything showing Issued, Part Paid or Overdue must be settled first — the portal will tell you the exact balance.

File any outstanding returns

A TCC cannot be issued for a year in which no return was filed. Employed taxpayers whose employer filed correctly are covered by the employer’s schedule; the self-employed must have filed their own annual return.

Apply on the portal

Select Tax Clearance Certificate, state the purpose of the application, and confirm the three years it should cover.

Pay the processing fee

₦2,000 for an individual, ₦10,000 for a business, against revenue head 12020002 or 12020003.

Assessment review

The assessment desk verifies the three-year record against the revenue ledger and the employer schedules. Where a discrepancy appears you are contacted with the specific year and figure in question.

Certificate issued

The certificate is issued electronically with a QR verification code. Any third party can confirm it is genuine at /payments/verify-receipt without contacting you.

Documents required

Taxpayer Identification Number.
Evidence of tax paid for each of the three preceding years — receipts are pulled automatically where payment was made electronically.
For employees: a tax deduction card or the employer’s certified PAYE schedule for each year.
For the self-employed: the filed annual returns and audited or certified accounts where applicable.
For a company applying for its directors: the CAC status report showing current directors.
A statement of the purpose for which the certificate is required.
Evidence of payment of the processing fee.

Refusal, and what to do about it

A certificate is refused where a return remains unfiled, an assessment remains unpaid, or the record shows an unresolved audit finding. The refusal is issued in writing and states the year and the amount.

A refusal on grounds you dispute may be objected to within thirty days. Where the objection concerns the underlying assessment, the objection procedure at /compliance/appeals applies.

Presenting a forged Tax Clearance Certificate is an offence under section 95 of the Personal Income Tax Act, and every certificate issued by the Service carries a verification code precisely so that no one has to take a paper copy on trust.

Common questions

I only started working last year. Can I get a three-year TCC?

Yes. Where you had no chargeable income in one or more of the three years, the certificate records "no tax due" for those years. What matters is that the position for each year is established, not that tax was paid in each.

My employer deducts PAYE. Why is my record incomplete?

Almost always because the employer deducted but did not remit, or remitted without a schedule identifying employees. Report it through the service desk — the liability is the employer’s, and section 82 of the Personal Income Tax Act makes them liable for the tax plus a penalty and interest.

Can a company get a TCC from the State?

A company’s own income tax is federal, so its corporate TCC comes from the FIRS. What the State issues to a company is a certificate in respect of the personal income tax of its directors, and confirmation of its PAYE, business premises and other State obligations.

How quickly can I get one in an emergency?

The statutory standard is two weeks and the Service does not operate a paid fast track — that would be exactly the sort of preference the reform removed. Where a record is clean and fully electronic, issue often happens within three working days.

Someone has offered to "arrange" a TCC for me. Should I use them?

No. A certificate obtained other than through the Service is a forgery, will fail verification the first time anyone checks it, and exposes you to prosecution. Report the offer on the whistleblower line.

Apply for your certificate

Fourteen working days, ₦2,000 for an individual, and a QR code that any third party can verify.

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