Tax Ombud or Tax Appeal Tribunal: choosing the route
When a Nigerian client's tax problem belongs with the Tax Ombud and when it needs an objection or a Tax Appeal Tribunal appeal, and how to keep both open.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in Nigeria
Two clients call the firm in the same week. One has been waiting many months for a VAT refund the NRS acknowledged long ago, and nobody answers its letters. The other has received an additional assessment it believes is simply wrong. Both are angry, both want something done, and both ask the same question: "Can we complain to someone?"
They can, but not to the same someone. Nigeria now has two very different routes for a taxpayer with a grievance: the Office of the Tax Ombud, and the formal path of objection and appeal to the Tax Appeal Tribunal. Choosing the wrong one wastes time. Choosing the Ombud when the problem needs an appeal can cost the client its rights altogether.
Two kinds of problem
The distinction that decides the route is between how the client has been treated and how much tax it owes.
- A service failure is about the process: delays, silence, files that go nowhere. The amount of tax may not be in dispute at all.
- A dispute about tax is about the liability: the client says the assessment, demand or decision is wrong in law or fact.
Many real cases contain both. The refund client may also disagree with how much the NRS proposes to refund. The assessment client may also have been ignored for months. Separating the two strands is the first job.
What the Tax Ombud handles
The NRS describes the Office of the Tax Ombud as the place to take a complaint that the tax authority has not resolved. It says a taxpayer should first try to resolve the issue with the authority and, if it stays unresolved, lodge a written complaint with the Ombud, giving details of the issue, the steps already taken and supporting documents. According to the NRS, the matters the Ombud typically handles include delays in tax refunds or in processing returns, unresolved complaints about assessments or penalties, and failure to receive responses from tax authorities. The NRS adds that the Ombud's services are free and confidential.
The NRS page on the Office of the Tax Ombud describes how to take such a complaint forward. For the refund client above, this is the natural route: the problem is a delay and a lack of response, and the client has already tried the NRS directly. The steps in preparing that complaint are covered in making a complaint to the Tax Ombud.
What objections and appeals decide
A disputed liability follows a statutory path. Under the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025, a taxable person who disputes an assessment must deliver a written notice of objection stating its grounds to the relevant tax authority within 30 days from the date of service of the notice of assessment. If the authority does not respond within 90 days, the objection is upheld. The objection must state the specific issues disputed with their monetary values, the amendment required, the justification, and the profits, income and tax admitted. Where there is no agreement, the taxpayer may appeal, and tax not under objection must still be paid.
The Tax Appeal Tribunal's FAQ says a person aggrieved by an assessment, demand notice, action or decision of the Service under the tax laws it administers may appeal to the Tribunal, and that the appeal must be filed within 30 days. The Tribunal's FAQ and the NRS's own page describe the start of those 30 days differently, so check the Tax Appeal Tribunal (Procedure) Rules 2021 for the exact trigger on each case. How to prepare the appeal itself is set out in preparing a notice of appeal.
For the assessment client, this is the route that protects its position. A complaint to the Ombud may help with how it is treated, but only an objection, and if necessary an appeal, can change what it owes.
Deadlines that keep running
Nothing in the NRS's description of the Ombud says that a complaint pauses the time limit for an objection or an appeal. Treat those deadlines as running regardless of any complaint. A client that writes to the Ombud about a disputed assessment and lets the 30-day objection window close may find it has a sympathetic hearing on process and no remaining right to challenge the tax.
Achekam computes objection and appeal deadlines for Nigerian assessments from the approved administration rule, set to the end of the day in Africa/Lagos time. Its filing calendar leaves out any deadline whose rule is still awaiting approval or contested, and says why. Where a date is left out, calculate it by hand from the date of service and diarise it with a reminder well before it falls.
Recording the route chosen and why
The choice of route is a professional judgement, and it should be recorded like one. In Achekam, staff can take a technical consultation on the engagement from question to conclusion and closure. Use it to record:
- What the client's grievance is, split into service failure and disputed liability.
- The relevant dates: service of the assessment, last contact with the NRS, deadlines.
- The route recommended for each strand, and why.
- Any difference of opinion between partners, with each position, the escalation and the resolution.
- The advice given to the client and the client's decision.
If a partner thought the Ombud alone would do and another insisted on an objection, the record shows how the firm resolved it.
Using both routes in sequence
Where a case has both strands, the routes can work together rather than compete:
| Situation | Sensible sequence |
|---|---|
| Disputed assessment, no service problem | Object within the time limit; appeal to the Tribunal if there is no agreement |
| Delay or silence, no dispute about the amount | Raise it with the NRS, then complain in writing to the Ombud |
| Disputed assessment and the NRS is not responding | Object within the time limit first; complain to the Ombud about the lack of response |
| Penalty the client believes is unfair | Decide whether it is a dispute about liability (object) or a complaint about treatment (Ombud), and protect the objection deadline either way |
The order matters: protect the statutory rights first, then pursue the complaint.
Review every open client grievance on the firm's books this week. For each, split the service complaint from the dispute about tax, confirm the objection or appeal deadline has been calculated, and record the chosen route in a technical consultation.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
