Information technology in taxation: portals, filing steps and new technologies

A tax return used to mean a trip to the tax office with a bag of papers. Now a company registers online, files its return on a portal, gets its assessment by email, pays by card or transfer, and downloads its tax clearance certificate. The practitioner who still works with paper and pencil loses clients to the one who uses the cloud, a payroll template and a data tool.

The exam asks what the technology is, what it does for the revenue and for the practitioner, how a return is filed on the portal, and what the challenges are.

This topic covers the work of tax practitioners and administrators, the effect of technology on administration in Nigeria, the FIRS portals (the Webportal, SIGTAS and TaxProMax), the steps for filing VAT and company income tax returns online, the new technologies (cloud, artificial intelligence, blockchain, data analytics, social media and mobile apps), their benefits, the taxes on technology-based transactions, and the challenges and opportunities.

The previous topic covered e-commerce. The next covers the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 and which law applies.

Key terms in plain English

Syllabus check

This topic is in syllabus area B, tax administration. It covers:

• the work of practitioners and administrators
• TaxProMax functions and the filing steps
• new technologies, their benefits and challenges

CAMA 2020 and technology in tax

The Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 (CAMA 2020) is the company law of Nigeria. The sections below apply to this topic.

The rules in more depth

Tax practitioners and tax administrators

Tax practitioners are independent firms licensed to give tax services to clients. Their work covers the preparation of tax records, computing the year-end tax, filing returns, advice, compliance with the tax laws, resolving disputes, and managing tax audit and investigation. Tax administrators are public authorities with the power to assess, collect and account for tax.

Their roles are:

• registering and educating taxpayers
• receiving returns
• assessing individuals and entities
• collecting, keeping records of and accounting for tax
• managing refunds
• routine audits and investigations
• managing and enforcing recovery of tax debts
• advising on the review of tax laws

The four elements of tax practice

1. Tax compliance: gathering tax information, evaluating and classifying it, filing the returns, and representing clients in audits and investigations.
2. Tax planning and advisory: arranging a client’s affairs to reduce tax. It covers open transactions, planning the timing and amount of future transactions, and closed transactions, deciding how to present and classify past transactions in the accounts.
3. Tax litigation: settling disputes with the authority in a court or tribunal, citing the law, acting as an expert witness, and appealing for clients.
4. Tax research and intelligence: identifying a tax problem, gathering evidence, evaluating scenarios and setting out solutions.

The effect of technology on administration in Nigeria

In 2006 the Federal Inland Revenue Service launched its first tax Webportal to automate registration and other processes. In 2014 an integrated tax administration system called SIGTAS was introduced, though its roll-out appears to have stalled. The FIRS then adopted a locally developed system, TaxProMax, which handles these parts of administration:

TaxProMax: the filing procedure

The Finance Act 2020 gave the FIRS the power to automate filing and payment, and the Service introduced TaxProMax as a one-stop online platform. On the portal a taxpayer can register, file returns and remit tax; carry out assessments and track obligations; manage withholding tax deductions; manage capital allowances and losses; download a tax clearance certificate; and communicate with the Service.

The portal was opened on 7 June 2021 for filing all naira-denominated taxes, following a circular of 4 June 2021. Because of difficulties in registering and using it, companies with a 31 December year end whose returns were due on 30 June 2021 had their deadline extended to 31 July 2021 with no penalty or interest.

A taxpayer registers, logs in, and files; on filing, a document identity number (DIN) is generated, and the DIN is compulsory to remit tax through the portal. Returns can be filed by the taxpayer or an approved agent. A taxpayer who wants to file on paper can visit the local office, where staff upload the documents, but this should be done at least two weeks before the deadline.

Filing a VAT return on TaxProMax:

1. Fill the tax update form at a local FIRS office.
2. Log in at the TaxProMax portal; the dashboard appears.
3. Click “taxes due” and select the tax type.
4. Click “process” to begin.
5. Fill the schedules: sales adjustment, exempt and zero-rated goods and services.
6. Click “add record” and “proceed”.
7. Make sure the VAT form has loaded after completing the schedules.
8. Select the currency under “returning currency”.
9. Enter total sales or income, exclusive of VAT.
10. Tick the declaration box.
11. Confirm all entries and submit.

Filing a company income tax return: log in; click “taxes due”; click “process” against the tax to open the schedules; the CIT form is generated when the schedules are complete; select the currency (NGN, GBP, USD, CFA, EUR); enter total revenue in the first box, which fills the pre-filled boxes; make the declaration under the form; choose the payment option: full payment or two, three or four instalments; submit; review the assessment and proceed to payment; upload the audited accounts, tax computations, notes to accounts and memorandum and articles of association.

Documents must be in PDF, except the notes to the accounts in Excel. Each file must be no more than 200kb. On the payment page, check the items and amounts, click to process payment, and a payment reference code is generated. Pay online through Remita, or pay at a designated bank, then confirm and print the acknowledgment slip.

New technologies

There are two views of the future: tax professionals will use ever more sophisticated technology to serve clients as they do now, or technology will displace the work of traditional tax professionals. McKinsey estimated that by 2030 intelligent agents and robots could replace as much as 30% of the world’s human labour, which raises the question of whether robots should pay tax.

Impact of the technologies

For the revenue: better customer satisfaction; lower cost of compliance, because staff are freed for valuable work; fewer data errors; better voluntary compliance and so more revenue. For practice firms: time saved through fast, accurate data entry; long-run cost savings; more time for high-level work; mobility of service; capacity to serve more clients.

Why firms should use technology: to win more clients, keep more clients, cross-sell services, and add more value by automating routine work.

Taxes on technology-based transactions

Examples of electronic transactions are online shopping, online movies, internet banking, online ticketing and reservations, auction sites, journal subscriptions and online betting and gaming. Income from them is not exempt: VAT, withholding tax, company tax and personal income tax apply as they do to other transactions. Multinationals now show digital business as a separate line in their accounts.

Because many digital companies have no physical presence, countries have adopted rules based on significant economic presence in line with the OECD framework.

By October 2020, Austria, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom had a digital services tax. The UK charges 2% on gross UK revenue of large businesses that provide a social media service, search engine or online marketplace, and France 3% on the digital revenue of large technology companies.

Under the Finance Act 2019, which came into force on 3 February 2020, Nigeria created a framework to tax non-resident technology companies with a significant economic presence that have no local entity. Electronic transactions were made subject to stamp duty.

The Companies Income Tax (Significant Economic Presence) Order 2020 gives the ₦25 million test and the listed activities, including use of a Nigerian domain name, registration of a website address in Nigeria and a purposeful and sustained interaction with persons in Nigeria through a localised digital page, such as prices in naira or payment in naira. Some countries also tax cryptocurrency transactions.

Challenges and opportunities

Challenges: low computer literacy; poor internet; cyber threat; high cost of implementation; lack of technical know-how; and data validation, summed up as garbage in, garbage out.

Opportunities for practitioners:

• to focus on higher level work for more clients
• greater visibility
• personalised services
• adaptability and new services
• time and cost savings
• mobility of service, so geography matters less
• new skills
• collaboration with anyone anywhere
• better audit quality, since auditors can ask many more questions

Features of an integrated tax administration system (ITAS)

1. Electronic registration of a taxpayer and validation of the TIN.
2. Online submission of tax returns.
3. Electronic payment of tax.
4. Processing of the electronic tax clearance certificate.
5. Automated filing and collection of VAT for branded shops, super shops, supermarkets and standard restaurants.

Computer applications for tax work: spreadsheets and portals

The syllabus asks for skills in spreadsheets and web portals. A spreadsheet is the practitioner’s basic tool. A good tax workbook has separate sheets for inputs, workings and outputs, so that a change in an input flows through to the answer. For a payroll and PAYE template, the inputs are each employee’s basic salary, housing and transport allowances, benefits in kind, pension, NHF, NHIS and life assurance.

The workings compute the annual gross income, the tax-exempt items and the relief, then the chargeable income, and apply the rate table with a lookup on the band. The output is the monthly tax, a payslip and a schedule for remittance. The same layout can be used for the old rates (the consolidated relief allowance and the 7% to 24% bands) and, for 2026, for the new bands.

1. First ₦800,000 at 0% = nil.
2. Next ₦2,200,000 (to ₦3,000,000) at 15% = ₦330,000.
3. Next ₦2,000,000 (to ₦5,000,000) at 18% = ₦360,000.
4. Annual tax = ₦690,000; monthly = ₦57,500.

In a spreadsheet each band is a row with a lower limit, an upper limit and a rate. The tax in a band is the rate times the smaller of (income minus the lower limit) and (the width of the band), floored at zero. The total tax is the sum of the rows.

If the cumulative method is used for PAYE, the sheet keeps year-to-date income and tax, so that a change in pay in a later month produces a refund where the cumulative tax falls.

Automated VAT management

An automated VAT process records each sale and purchase with its VAT code (standard, zero-rated or exempt), adds up output VAT, finds the input VAT that can be recovered, and gives the net VAT payable or refundable for the month.

The schedules the portal asks for, the sales adjustment and the exempt and zero-rated supplies, can be taken from the same ledger, so the return is the output of the books and not a separate exercise. Reconciliation of the VAT account to the return is then a routine check.

Navigating the revenue portal

Skills the examiner has in mind include:

• registering an account on the portal
• validating the TIN
• logging in and finding the dashboard
• selecting the tax type under “taxes due”
• completing schedules
• saving a draft and submitting
• making the declaration
• generating the payment reference
• paying through the online channel or the bank
• downloading the acknowledgment
• later downloading the tax clearance certificate

Candidates who know the order of the steps and the file rules can answer a procedural question from the list above without writing a general essay.

Protecting tax data

Because returns and ledgers hold sensitive information, technology brings a duty to protect it. Practical safeguards are strong passwords and two-step sign-in; access limited by role; encryption of stored and transmitted files; regular backups held separately; updated software; training of staff to spot phishing; and a plan for incidents.

The cyber threat is one of the main challenges, and a firm that loses client data also breaches the confidentiality principle in the code of ethics.

Using data analytics in a tax audit

For an administrator, analytics lets the Service compare a taxpayer’s return with bank data, VAT returns, withholding tax credits, customs data and the TIN database, and flag mismatches, such as a company that reports low profit while its VAT sales are high.

For a practitioner, the same tools allow a full review of the client’s transactions before filing, a test of whether tax controls in the accounting system work. A prediction of areas the revenue may query. There are four advantages for auditors: checking transactions at the source, reviewing the whole data set rather than a sample, predictive analytics to assess risk, and testing programmed controls.

1. An analytics test comparing the two returns flags the ₦200 million difference.
2. The company should reconcile the figures (for example, VAT on sales of agent goods or zero-rated sales) before the revenue asks.

A practitioner's checklist for moving to technology

A firm that wants to use the technologies above can follow a short plan. First, list the tasks done by hand each month: collecting client records, keying invoices, computing PAYE, preparing VAT and company tax returns, tracking deadlines. Second, rank them by volume and risk, because high-volume, low-judgement tasks give the quickest return from automation.

Third, pick tools that fit the size of the firm: a cloud accounting package with a tax module for small clients, an OCR tool for source documents, a spreadsheet template for payroll, and a secure portal for exchanging files.

Fourth, set rules for data: who may open each client file, how long records are kept (six years under the Companies and Allied Matters Act), where backups sit, and how errors are corrected. Fifth, train staff, because low computer literacy is a common challenge. Sixth, review each quarter: time saved, errors found, client feedback.

1. OCR converts the scanned invoices to digital entries, which removes most of the keying.
2. Robotic process automation can post the entries to the ledger, and a cloud tax module computes output and input VAT.
3. A person reviews exceptions and files each return on the portal, so judgement is kept where it matters.

1. The system computed correctly from the wrong input, which is the garbage in, garbage out problem.
2. The fix is a validation check on VAT codes before the return is generated, and a review of exceptions.

Benefits and risks side by side

The position from 2026

The Federal Inland Revenue Service has become the Nigeria Revenue Service under the Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025. On 30 April 2026 the Service replaced TaxProMax with a new platform, Rev360, for registration, filing and payment. Section 23 of the Administration Act lets the Service deploy an Electronic Fiscal System, and a taxable person must use it: invoices are cleared through the Merchant-Buyer Solution and receive an invoice reference number.

Compliance monitoring for large taxpayers (annual turnover above ₦5 billion) began in April 2026 with a deadline of 31 July 2026, and medium and emerging taxpayers follow in phases. Use the TaxProMax steps above for questions set on the earlier portal.

Worked examples

1. The Service extended the deadline for such companies to 31 July 2021.
2. No penalty or interest for late filing applied during the extension.

1. The taxpayer visits the local office, where staff upload the documents.
2. This should be done at least two weeks before the deadline, so by 16 June.

1. The portal generates the assessment; the company reviews it and goes to payment.
2. It needs the DIN and the payment reference code, and pays online through Remita or at a designated bank.
3. It prints the acknowledgment slip as proof of payment.

1. Each file must be no more than 200kb, so the accounts must be compressed or split.
2. The notes to the accounts must be in Excel, not PDF.

1. It exceeds ₦25 million and targets Nigerian users, so it has a significant economic presence.

1. Optical character recognition, a form of AI, converts the text in the images into digital files.
2. Robotic process automation can then post the entries.

How to score full marks

• Separate the practitioner’s view from the administrator’s.
• List the e-functions in order: registration, assessment, payment, filing, calculator, TCC, reporting, audit.
• Link each technology to a specific use.
• Balance every answer with challenges as well as benefits.

Common mistakes in the exam

• Writing about technology in general without tax examples.
• Forgetting the DIN or the file rules for uploads.
• Giving blockchain as a way to avoid audit without the caveats that adoption and regulation must come first.
• Answering with TaxProMax for a question set on the 2026 platform.

Quick revision

• Webportal 2006; SIGTAS 2014; TaxProMax 2021; Rev360 2026.
• Eight e-functions; DIN; PDF under 200kb; Remita.
• Six technologies; four benefits for the revenue; four reasons for firms to adopt.
• Challenges: literacy, internet, cyber, cost, skills, data quality.

Practice questions

Questions 1 to 10 are multiple choice. Questions 11 to 13 are written. Try each before opening the answer.

Model answers

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