Tax rules awaiting approval: what a firm can do
What 'awaiting platform approval' means for a Nigerian or Kenyan firm's tax and audit work in Achekam, and the work that carries on in the meantime.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in Nigeria, Kenya
A Nigerian or Kenyan firm opening Achekam's tax screens for the first time may meet a message it did not expect: a figure that cannot be computed because the rule behind it is awaiting approval. The VAT rate, the company income tax rate, an audit exemption threshold. For a firm used to software with the rates simply built in, that can look as if something is broken.
It is deliberate. This article explains what "awaiting approval" means, why a firm cannot change a rate itself, who approves, what work carries on regardless, and how to record work done outside Achekam while rules are pending.
Seeded under review
Every Nigerian and Kenyan tax figure in Achekam's rule book was seeded "under review", and Achekam computes nothing from a figure until an Achekam platform administrator approves it. As shipped, that means Achekam computes no Nigerian or Kenyan tax figure at all; the tax rules arrive awaiting approval, and firms cannot approve them. Whether particular rules have since been approved is something a firm sees on its own screens.
The reason is the state of the law. Nigeria's tax system was rewritten when the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 commenced on 1 January 2026, and Kenyan rates move with each year's Finance Act. A rate written into software and never checked is how a firm ends up charging the wrong tax for months. Achekam's approach is to hold each figure until someone accountable approves it, and to refuse rather than guess in the meantime.
The refusals are explicit. While the Nigerian or Kenyan VAT rate rule awaits approval, Achekam refuses to charge standard-rate VAT on an invoice in that workspace and tells the user to choose a tax code without VAT or to wait. Nor can Achekam yet tell a firm whether a Nigerian or Kenyan company is exempt from audit, because the small-company thresholds ship awaiting approval too.
Firms cannot change a rate
No firm user can change a rate. That is intended: a rate is a statement of law, the same for every firm, and letting each firm type its own would put different law in different workspaces.
A firm's partners and administrators can read the approved statutory rules that Achekam's decisions use, with their change log, in the Regulatory Rule Book; only Achekam's platform administrators change them, and never one person alone. The firm therefore sees what is approved and when, even though it cannot edit it. The regulatory rule book explains how to read it.
Payroll works differently, and the difference is worth knowing. Payroll tax tables ship pre-loaded but unconfirmed, and no payroll run uses a table until a named person at the firm confirms the firm's own copy. For payroll the confirming step sits with the firm; for revenue rules it sits with the platform.
Approval by two platform administrators
Approving a revenue rule takes two people on a platform-owner approvals page. In Nigeria three figures are contested in the sources: small-company turnover, the turnover threshold for the minimum effective tax rate, and the PAYE remittance day. Achekam uses none of them until one platform administrator chooses a candidate with a reason and a different administrator approves it. Until then a client's size class shows as UNDETERMINED, with what each candidate would give.
That transparency is useful in practice. A firm advising a client near a contested threshold can see both outcomes and explain the uncertainty, instead of relying on a figure that may prove wrong. Put that explanation in writing to the client, with the date, so that if the position settles the other way the advice on file shows what was known at the time.
Work that still runs
A great deal of work does not depend on an approved rate:
- Tax profiles and returns. Staff can open a Nigerian or Kenyan tax profile for a client or the firm and start returns that move through prepare, review and approve by different people. Once approved, a return's rule snapshot and figures are frozen, and an amendment becomes a new version.
- Client sign-off. A reviewer can send an approved return to the client for e-signature with a summary PDF, and the signature is recorded as the client's approval.
- Audit work. The audit side runs, although the audit-requirement check cannot conclude on the small-company exemption until its thresholds are approved.
- Payroll, once the firm has confirmed its own table.
- Recording filings and payments made on the authorities' own portals.
Recording what was computed elsewhere
While a rule is pending, clients still need returns filed. Compute the figure from the law and the authority's guidance: the NRS keeps a library of tax laws, 2026 guidelines and information circulars on VAT, withholding VAT, refunds, company income tax and stamp duty, and KRA publishes its own guidance for Kenya. Then keep the record straight:
- Keep the computation as a working paper on the client's file, with the sources used and the date.
- Have someone other than the preparer review it, as Achekam's own return workflow would.
- File on Rev360 or iTax. Achekam does not file Nigerian or Kenyan returns; a person files and uploads the portal's receipt for someone else to verify.
- Check in advance that someone at the firm holds the filing permission, because no role receives it by default.
- When the rule is approved, compare Achekam's figure with what was filed and look into any difference.
Some figures Achekam will not compute whatever their approval state; they are listed in Nigerian and Kenyan taxes Achekam will not compute.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
