Getting a Lagos e-TCC on the LIRS e-Tax platform
What a Lagos taxpayer must have filed, paid and updated on the LIRS e-Tax platform before an electronic tax clearance certificate can be issued.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Nigeria
A tax clearance certificate is one of those documents nobody thinks about until it is needed by Friday. A contract tender asks for one. A bank wants one before approving a facility. A licence renewal will not go through without it. For a sole trader, a partner in a firm or a director paid through PAYE in Lagos, the certificate comes from the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS), electronically, through its e-Tax platform.
Applying for the e-TCC is the simple part. The difficulty is that it reflects the previous three years, and gaps in those years cannot be fixed in a week. This article sets out what the LIRS asks for and how to make sure you qualify long before the deadline.
Three years of returns, filed on e-Tax
The LIRS FAQs say that to obtain an electronic tax clearance certificate on the e-Tax platform, a taxpayer must have filed annual income tax returns on the platform for the last three years.
Note the words "on the platform". A return delivered on paper years ago, or filed somewhere else, may not show on e-Tax. If any of the three years is missing from your e-Tax history, that is the first thing to resolve. Ask your accountant or the LIRS how to bring an older return onto the platform, and allow time for the assessment that will follow it, because the certificate also depends on that assessment being paid.
Assessments for those years, fully paid
Filing is not enough. The FAQs also require that the taxpayer has obtained LIRS assessments for those three years, with all liabilities fully paid.
That condition catches people in two ways. Some file returns and never check whether an assessment followed. Others dispute an assessment and let it sit. An assessment that is neither objected to nor paid within 30 days becomes final and conclusive under the LIRS FAQs, which leaves a liability that blocks the certificate. How that happens, and how to object properly, is explained in when a Lagos tax assessment becomes final. The LIRS FAQs say an objection must be filed on e-Tax within 30 days of receiving the assessment, with specific grounds and evidence of payment of the undisputed portion.
Profile details: photograph and full address
The last requirement is administrative but easy to overlook. The LIRS FAQs say the taxpayer must have a recent passport photograph and a complete residential address in the e-Tax profile. A profile set up years ago with a partial address or no photograph will hold up the certificate even when the returns and payments are in order. Log in and check the profile now.
You can read the LIRS's current requirements in its frequently asked questions, which cover the e-TCC, PAYE and the annual employer return. The same page keeps an older e-TCC section that refers to the repealed Personal Income Tax Act; rely on the current answer.
The Tax ID behind the certificate
The NRS says a Tax ID must be quoted accurately on all tax forms, payments and correspondence with tax authorities, and that a valid Tax ID makes a person eligible for services such as tax clearance certificates. A payment made under the wrong number, or returns filed under an old identifier, can leave your record looking incomplete. Make sure the Tax ID on your e-Tax profile matches the one on your payments and returns.
Employees depend on their employer
For employees, part of the record comes from the employer. The LIRS FAQs say that under section 14(1) of the Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025, every employer must file a return of all emoluments paid to its employees in the preceding year with the relevant tax authority not later than 31 January each year, the Form H1 annual return.
An employer that files Form H1 late, or remits PAYE late, can leave its staff short of what the LIRS needs. Employers can help by filing on time and by keeping each year's PAYE remittances easy to find. The monthly side of that duty is covered in Lagos PAYE remittance by the 10th.
What Achekam checks, and what stays on e-Tax
Achekam checks its own records for what would stand in the way of a tax clearance certificate, but never claims the authority will issue one. When a certificate is obtained, Achekam takes the expiry from the certificate itself; where a Nigerian certificate states no expiry, Achekam shows none rather than guessing.
Achekam lists every State Internal Revenue Service, including the LIRS, but leaves every State filing and payment to the State's own channel. The returns, payments, profile updates and the e-TCC application itself all happen on e-Tax. The general rules on clearance certificates are in tax clearance certificates in Nigeria.
Getting ready a year before you need it
If you know a tender, licence or loan will need an e-TCC next year, start now:
- Log in to e-Tax and list which of the last three years have returns on the platform.
- File any missing return for those years.
- Check for an assessment against each year, and its balance.
- Pay or object to any outstanding assessment, inside the 30-day window where it still runs.
- Update the profile with a recent passport photograph and your complete residential address.
- Confirm your Tax ID is the same on the profile, returns and payments.
- If you are employed, ask your employer to confirm its Form H1 return covering you was filed.
When those seven points are clean, applying for the certificate is the easy part.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
