Nigeria folds VAT into the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 and repeals the VAT Act

What changed in detail

The Nigeria Tax Act, 2025 (Act No. 7 of 2025), assented to on 26 June 2025 and published in the Federal Republic of Nigeria Official Gazette No. 117, Vol. 112 of the same date, consolidates most of Nigeria’s tax charging provisions into one statute, with commencement on 1 January 2026.

Value added tax now sits in Chapter Six, sections 143–157. Section 144 charges VAT on all taxable supplies in Nigeria, subject to the exemptions in Part IV of Chapter Eight. Section 145 sets out when a supply of goods, services or an incorporeal is deemed to take place in Nigeria, and section 146 fixes the time of supply. Section 147 keeps the standard rate at 7.5%.

The chapter also carries provisions that each have their own record: section 150 on taxable supplies by non-residents, section 152 on the contents of a VAT invoice, and section 157 on fiscalisation. Section 155 sets the input-tax credit rules, including a five-year window to deduct input tax.

Section 195(j) repeals the Value Added Tax Act, Cap. V1, LFN, 2004, so from commencement the VAT Act is no longer the governing text.

What it means

The VAT Act no longer exists as a separate law. From 1 January 2026, citations to it should point to Chapter Six of the Nigeria Tax Act, and its section numbers do not carry over. The headline rate did not change. The structural change is in the companion sections: non-resident registration (ng-nonresident-digital-vat-registration-2025), invoice content (ng-vat-invoice-requirements-2025) and fiscalisation (ng-vat-fiscalisation-mandate-2025).

As of November 2026 the Act is in force, and we found no amending Act to Chapter Six. One drafting slip is worth knowing: section 153(1) tells suppliers to collect VAT “at the rate specified in section 146”, but the rate is in section 147.