Is your FIRS-issued TIN still valid under the NRS?
What the move from FIRS to the Nigeria Revenue Service means for your existing TIN, open audits and objections, and the new 13-digit Tax ID.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Nigeria
When the Federal Inland Revenue Service became the Nigeria Revenue Service, a lot of business owners looked at the TIN printed on their letterhead, their invoices and their bank mandates and wondered whether it had just expired. Some rushed to register again. Others did nothing and hoped for the best.
Neither reaction is quite right. The NRS has said plainly that existing registrations carry over, but the same period also brought a new national Tax ID and a new filing platform. This article separates what has stayed the same from what has changed, and lists the few things worth doing now.
What the NRS says about registrations made under FIRS
Nigeria's Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has been rebranded as the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS). On the question of numbers, the NRS says taxpayers do not need to re-register or obtain new Tax Identification Numbers, because all registrations, TINs and records issued under FIRS remain valid and migrate to NRS systems.
The NRS answers this and other transition questions in its frequently asked questions, which explain what the move from FIRS to the NRS means for registrations, TINs, audits, objections and appeals. If anyone asks you to pay to "re-register" your business with the NRS, point them to that page.
Audits, rulings and objections carry on
The change of name does not reset open matters. The NRS says ongoing audits, advance rulings, objections, appeals and disputes started under FIRS continue under the NRS without restart or revalidation.
That cuts both ways. A business that objected to an assessment before the change does not lose its objection. A business that was in the middle of an audit cannot treat the new name as a fresh start either. Keep the correspondence from FIRS with the file, because the NRS will treat it as its own.
The 13-digit Tax ID and the joint portal
Alongside the change of name came a change of number format. Since 1 January 2026, Nigeria issues a 13-digit Tax ID that replaces previously issued TINs. The important word is "issues": businesses do not apply afresh, they retrieve the Tax ID the system has generated for them.
An FCT-IRS public notice dated 29 December 2025 says the Joint Revenue Board (JRB) and the NRS launched the Nigerian Tax ID Portal, where taxpayers retrieve their Tax ID at taxid.jrb.gov.ng or taxid.nrs.gov.ng. The same notice describes the Tax ID as a unique, system-generated number assigned to all taxable persons in Nigeria, linked to the National Identification Number (NIN) for individuals and to the CAC registration number for businesses and organisations. The NRS's own page says the same: the Tax ID is obtained or retrieved on the national portal using the NIN for individuals and the CAC number for non-individuals.
One detail to be aware of: the NRS's own "Retrieve Your Tax ID" page still links to a portal address on the old firs.gov.ng domain. Use whichever address the NRS or your State revenue service currently directs you to, and check you are on an official government site before entering your CAC or NIN details.
So the honest summary is this. Your registration is still valid and you do not register again. But the number you quote on returns and documents should now be the 13-digit Tax ID retrieved from the portal.
A new platform as well as a new name
The filing platform changed too. The NRS launched Rev360 on 30 April 2026 to replace TaxPro Max for registration, filing, payments, refunds and tax clearance certificates, rolling it out in phases. TaxPro Max profiles, history and balances were migrated automatically. The practical changes are covered in Rev360 replaces TaxPro Max, and the wider reform in what the tax reform changed.
What Achekam checks, and what it cannot
Where Achekam takes a Nigeria Tax ID, it checks only that the number has 13 digits. It cannot confirm the number with the authority, because no public Tax ID verification service was found; you retrieve it on the Tax ID portal and record the evidence yourself. Achekam does not accept a NIN as a Tax ID, and a CAC number is reduced to its digits without a length check. A number that passes the length check may still belong to someone else, so the portal result you saved is the real proof.
Updating the number your documents print
Your own documents need the right number too. In Achekam a business enters its VAT registration number in Settings under Firm Profile, and documents made by the server print it and are titled Tax Invoice only when a VAT number is set. If the number stored there is an old TIN, update it to the number you now use for VAT, so invoices, credit notes and statements show it. Readers who also trade in Kenya can compare the equivalent there in Kenyan tax IDs and the KRA PIN.
Checklist after the change from FIRS to NRS
- Do not re-register. Your FIRS registration remains valid and migrates.
- Retrieve your 13-digit Tax ID on the official portal with your CAC number, and save the result with the date.
- Update your documents: letterhead, invoice settings, e-mail signatures and supplier forms.
- Tell your bank and major customers the number you now quote, so their records match yours.
- Check Rev360 access for the people who file, now that TaxPro Max is being replaced.
- Keep FIRS correspondence on open audits, objections and rulings; they continue unchanged.
- Collect suppliers' Tax IDs as they retrieve theirs, for your withholding schedules.
None of this is urgent in the sense of a penalty tomorrow. All of it is easier to do now than when a return is rejected because the number on it does not match.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
