Crypto Tax News
Nigeria just put crypto in the tax net: what the NRS guidelines actually say
Nigeria has roughly 22 to 26 million crypto users and, until last week, no dedicated rulebook for taxing them. The NRS guidelines change that, and the most important detail is not the headline rate. It is that your exchange now takes a cut before you ever file.
What changed, and when
On 31 July 2026 the Nigeria Revenue Service issued its Guidelines on the Taxation of Virtual Assets, announced by public notice on 3 August. This is the first document that explains in detail how Nigeria intends to tax crypto, and it sits underneath two laws that already commenced on 1 January 2026: the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 and the Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025. Those Acts already made digital assets chargeable. What was missing was the machinery: who collects, at what rate, on what base, and what happens if nobody does. That is what the guidelines supply. They apply to individual traders, companies, Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs), peer-to-peer marketplace operators, and anyone paid in crypto.
The headline rate did not change, and that is the point
A lot of the coverage led with "30% crypto tax", which is true only for companies. The guidelines restate the position already set by the Nigeria Tax Act 2025: individuals pay the progressive personal income tax bands, and companies other than small companies pay 30% company income tax. There is no separate flat crypto rate for individuals. The old 10% Capital Gains Tax under the repealed CGT Act applied up to and including the 2025 tax year. From 2026 your crypto gain is added to your other income and taxed at the band it falls into.
The 2026 personal income tax bands
The first NGN 800,000 is taxed at 0%. The next NGN 2.2 million is taxed at 15%, the next NGN 9 million at 18%, the next NGN 13 million at 21%, the next NGN 25 million at 23%, and anything above NGN 50 million at 25%. Because your crypto gain stacks on top of your salary and other income rather than being taxed in isolation, the rate that applies to it depends on what you already earn. A gain of NGN 2 million sitting on top of a NGN 10 million salary is taxed very differently from the same gain on no other income.
Losses are ring-fenced
A loss on digital assets can only be set against gains on digital assets. You cannot use a bad year in crypto to reduce tax on your salary or your business profits. Keep the records, because the loss still has value against future crypto gains.
The 1% your exchange takes before you file
This is the change that will surprise most people. VASPs and P2P marketplace operators must now withhold 1% on taxable disposals of cryptocurrencies, security or investment tokens, and applicable NFTs. The critical detail is the base: the 1% is calculated on your gross disposal proceeds, not on your profit. If you sell NGN 10 million of Bitcoin that you bought for NGN 12 million, you made a loss, and you still have NGN 100,000 withheld. That is not a bug in the design. It is a collection mechanism, and it is why the next paragraph matters so much.
It is a credit, not an extra tax
The amount withheld is an advance payment against your final annual income tax liability, not a separate final tax. When you file, you subtract what was already withheld from what you actually owe and pay the difference. If the withholding exceeded your real liability, which is entirely possible when you trade high volumes on thin margins, the excess is refundable through the annual return. This makes your filing more important, not less. If you never file, you never reclaim it.
Stablecoin sales are exempt from the 1%
Selling USDT, USDC or another stablecoin does not attract the 1% withholding. Stablecoins are a separate category in the guidelines. Note carefully what this exemption does and does not do: it removes the withholding, not necessarily every tax obligation attached to stablecoin activity. If you realised a gain or earned income in stablecoins, the underlying charge can still apply.
10% on staking, mining, airdrops and DeFi
Income from staking rewards, mining, airdrops and DeFi yield is taxable, and carries a 10% withholding where it is paid through a platform. Like the 1%, this is a credit against your final liability rather than the end of the matter, because your actual rate on that income is whatever band it lands in. Separately, if you are a freelancer or consultant paid in crypto, professional and consultancy fees attract 5% or 10% withholding depending on the circumstances, and salaries paid in crypto are taxed as employment income in the ordinary way.
The 1.5% stamp duty and the 7.5% VAT
Every conversion between fiat and tokens, in either direction, attracts a 1.5% stamp duty. It is deducted by the VASP or P2P marketplace from the tokens credited to the recipient, which means it is taken in kind rather than billed to you. Separately, VAT of 7.5% applies to taxable services provided by VASPs, meaning platform and service fees. Transfers of virtual assets do not by themselves attract VAT. One unusual mechanic worth knowing: income tax withheld and stamp duty must be remitted to the NRS in the originating token of the transaction, while VAT is remitted in the currency used for payment.
What is explicitly not taxable
The guidelines list events that do not trigger tax, and this list is genuinely useful because several of them are the things people worry about most. Simply holding virtual assets is not a taxable event. Neither is moving assets between wallets you own yourself, which matters enormously for anyone who spreads holdings across exchanges and hardware wallets. Locking tokens up for staking is not a disposal, though the rewards it produces are income. Minting an NFT is not taxable in itself. Tokenising a real-world asset without changing beneficial ownership is not a disposal. Taking a loan secured by your virtual assets is not a disposal. Finally, the eNaira and other central bank digital currencies sit outside this framework entirely.
Tax ID is now mandatory, and the penalties are real
Anyone engaged in virtual asset activity must register for tax and obtain a Tax Identification Number. VASPs and P2P escrow operators are required to make a valid Tax ID a condition of activating an account, which is what effectively ends anonymous trading on regulated Nigerian platforms. The penalties are steep on the platform side: NGN 10 million for the first month of non-compliance by a VASP or P2P operator, plus NGN 1 million for every subsequent month until it is fixed. For individuals and businesses, failing to register attracts NGN 50,000 for the first month and NGN 25,000 for each month after.
A worked example
Suppose that during 2026 you sell NGN 40 million of Bitcoin that cost you NGN 25 million, sell NGN 10 million of USDT at no gain, and earn NGN 3 million in staking rewards. Your taxable amount is the NGN 15 million gain plus NGN 3 million of income, so NGN 18 million. Running that through the 2026 bands gives NGN 3,210,000 of tax: nothing on the first NGN 800,000, then 15% on NGN 2.2 million, 18% on NGN 9 million, and 21% on the remaining NGN 6 million. Now the credits. The 1% withholding applies to the NGN 40 million of Bitcoin proceeds but not to the USDT, so NGN 400,000. The 10% on staking gives NGN 300,000. Your platforms have therefore already remitted NGN 700,000 on your behalf, and the balance you owe on filing is NGN 2,510,000. Note that the 1% was charged on the full NGN 40 million of proceeds, not on the NGN 15 million gain, which is why the credit is larger than a naive reading of "1% tax" would suggest.
What to do now
Three things. Get a Tax ID if you do not have one, because platforms will start requiring it to keep your account active. Start keeping the acquisition cost of everything you hold, because the 1% withheld on proceeds tells the NRS what you sold for but nothing about what you paid, and the gap between those two numbers is the only thing standing between you and being taxed on gross proceeds you never actually earned. And keep the withholding receipts your exchange issues, because those are what you offset against your final bill and what you use to claim a refund if too much was taken.
How Taxxy handles it
Taxxy applies the 2026 progressive bands to Nigerian crypto gains rather than the repealed flat 10%, stacking them on your other income the way the Nigeria Tax Act requires, and it keeps digital asset losses ring-fenced. It also estimates the withholding you should already have suffered: 1% of gross disposal proceeds with stablecoin sales correctly excluded, and 10% on staking, mining, airdrop and DeFi income, then shows the balance due after those credits and flags any refundable excess. Wallet-to-wallet transfers between your own addresses are matched and excluded rather than being treated as disposals. Because the withholding estimate assumes every disposal settled through a registered Nigerian VASP, it will overstate the credit if you trade self-custody or offshore, so it is presented as a separate figure alongside your liability rather than silently netted off it.
A note on sources
The figures above reflect the NRS Guidelines on the Taxation of Virtual Assets as reported consistently across Nigerian and international coverage at the time of writing. The guidelines are published for download on the NRS website at nrs.gov.ng, and we recommend reading the official text before acting on any of this, particularly if you are a VASP with remittance obligations. This article is general information, not tax advice. Nigerian crypto taxation changed substantially in 2026 and the administrative practice around these guidelines is still settling, so speak to a qualified Nigerian tax professional about your own position.