Remitting PAYE to LIRS by the 10th
When a Lagos employer must remit PAYE to the LIRS, when the clock starts, what lateness costs, and why Achekam leaves the date off its calendar for now.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Nigeria
Payday in a Lagos business sets off a second deadline that staff never see. The income tax deducted from each salary is not the employer's money; it is held for the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) and has to be paid over within days. Many employers know there is a date, but not which one, and not when the count begins.
This article sets out the date the LIRS gives, when it starts running, what it costs to miss it, and why Achekam's own filing calendar does not yet show a PAYE remittance day for Nigeria.
The 10th day of the following month
The LIRS says it twice. Its Tax Types page says an employer in Lagos must deduct income tax from each employee's pay and remit it to the relevant tax authority on or before the 10th day of the month following the month in which employees are paid. Its FAQs say that where payment is due to a State Internal Revenue Service, PAYE and capital gains tax deducted must be remitted not later than the 10th day of the following month, while amounts due to the Nigeria Revenue Service are remitted not later than the 21st day.
So March salaries mean PAYE to the LIRS by 10 April. The LIRS sets this out on its tax types page, which lists PAYE remitted by the 10th of the following month among the taxes Lagos collects. That page cites the repealed Personal Income Tax Act as the basis; the same 10th-day date appears in the LIRS FAQs under the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025.
When the clock starts
The LIRS FAQs add a detail that catches employers who pay late or irregularly: the due date runs from the earlier of the date the amount was deducted or the date the obligation to deduct arose.
In words: if salaries for March are due at the end of March but the business pays them in the middle of April, the obligation to deduct arose with the March salaries. The remittance deadline is measured from that earlier point, not from the late payday. Delaying salaries does not delay the PAYE.
What failing to deduct or remit costs
The LIRS FAQs set out the penalties under the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025 for a collecting agent:
- Failing to deduct attracts an administrative penalty of 40% of the amount not deducted (section 105).
- Failing to remit on time means paying the amount withheld plus an administrative penalty of 10% per annum of it and interest at the Central Bank of Nigeria monetary policy rate (section 107).
The first penalty is the heavier one. An employer that forgets to run PAYE for a new employee, or pays a casual worker without deducting, faces a penalty far larger than one that deducted correctly and remitted a few days late.
Why the date is contested, and what Achekam does about it
The Act itself frames the remittance penalty around a different day. Under section 107 of the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025, a person who deducts or withholds tax and fails to remit it by the 21st day of the month after the deduction is liable to the penalty and interest. The LIRS, meanwhile, gives the 10th for PAYE due to a State.
Achekam treats the Nigerian PAYE remittance day as one of three contested figures. It does not use it until one platform administrator chooses a candidate with a reason and a different administrator approves it. Its filing calendar leaves out any deadline whose rule is awaiting approval or contested, and says why. So if you look for a PAYE remittance date in Achekam's Nigerian calendar and find a gap, that is deliberate.
The practical answer for a Lagos employer is simple: work to the 10th. Paying by the earlier date satisfies both readings. Put it in your own calendar and in your tax calendar.
The State schedule and the annual return
Achekam's payroll does the State allocation for you. Each Nigerian employee's PAYE is assigned to the State tax authority of their State of residence, and a run cannot be approved while a State cannot be worked out. Nigerian monthly schedules for PAYE per State are prepared from approved runs, along with pension, NHF and NSITF schedules and the annual employer and ITF returns. A Lagos office with staff living in Ogun State therefore gets two PAYE schedules, one for each State. How that works is covered in PAYE by State and the annual return.
The year has its own date too. The LIRS FAQs say every employer must file a return of all emoluments paid to its employees in the preceding year not later than 31 January each year: the Form H1 annual return. The LIRS Tax Types page says PAYE can be filed, paid and managed on the LIRS eTax platform.
A monthly Lagos PAYE routine
- Run and approve payroll before payday, with every employee's State of residence recorded.
- Download the Lagos PAYE schedule from the approved run.
- Check it against the payroll totals for Lagos-resident staff.
- Pay the LIRS on eTax on or before the 10th of the following month.
- Record the payment with the reference LIRS gives.
- Repeat for any other State your staff live in, using that State's own channel.
- File in a monthly folder: the schedule, the payment evidence and the reference, ready for Form H1 in January.
Payday and remittance day belong in the same diary week. Treat the 10th as part of paying your staff, not as a separate tax chore.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
