What happens if you don't stamp a document
The consequences in Nigeria of not stamping a dutiable document on time, from inadmissible evidence to late penalties, and how to clean up old files.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Running a business businesses in Nigeria
A customer stops paying under a three-year service agreement. Your lawyer prepares the claim, asks for the signed contract, and then asks a second question: "Was it stamped?" Nobody knows. It was signed, filed and forgotten, like most of the business's contracts. That question can decide whether the contract helps you at all.
In Nigeria, failing to stamp a dutiable document is not just an unpaid tax. It affects what the document can do for you when you need it most. This article explains what the NRS says about unstamped instruments in court, the penalty for stamping late, when the stamping clock starts, and a practical plan for finding and dealing with unstamped agreements in your files.
Not admissible as evidence
The NRS's Information Circular No. 2026/04 on dutiable instruments, published on 29 June 2026, says an unstamped dutiable instrument is not admissible as evidence in court, judicial or arbitration proceedings, or to satisfy any evidentiary requirement. There is one exception: it may be given in evidence in a criminal proceeding.
Think about what that means for an ordinary business dispute. A contract claim, a debt recovery, an arbitration under a supply agreement: these are civil matters. If the contract they rest on is dutiable and unstamped, the circular says it cannot be admitted as evidence. Your case may have to be argued without the very document that records the deal.
The NRS's own stamp duties page makes the same point more broadly: stamp duty must be paid before certain documents can be legally enforced or admitted as evidence in court, and failing to stamp, or stamping improperly, can lead to penalties, fines or invalidation of the document. The same page still refers in places to rates in the Stamp Duties Act, which the Nigeria Tax Act, 2025 repealed, so read it alongside the circular rather than on its own.
The circular sets out what is dutiable, who pays, the deadline and the effect of not stamping; read the NRS Information Circular on dutiable instruments before you decide what to do about old agreements.
Penalties and interest for stamping late
Lateness costs money as well. The Lagos Internal Revenue Service's FAQs say that failing to stamp a dutiable instrument attracts a penalty of 10% of the unpaid stamp duty, plus interest at the Central Bank of Nigeria monetary policy rate, citing sections 110 to 113 of the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025.
On a fixed duty, a 10% penalty is small. On an ad valorem duty, such as on a property transfer or a large loan, it is not, and interest keeps running. The cost of stamping late is real, but it can be far smaller than the cost of a contract you cannot put in evidence. Treat it as the price of fixing the problem.
The LIRS FAQs also describe who stamps what: instruments involving corporate bodies are stamped by the NRS at Federal level, and instruments between individuals and non-corporate entities by LIRS at State level. Take a late instrument to whichever of them would have stamped it on time.
When the 30 days run from
The NRS says every instrument executed in Nigeria must be stamped not later than 30 days after its execution, by the person obligated to pay the duty. The clock starts at execution, the signing, not when the work starts, not when the first invoice goes out, and not when a dispute arises.
For a contract signed by several parties on different days, take the last signature as the safe starting point, and ask your adviser if the dates are far apart.
Finding unstamped contracts in your files
Most businesses do not know which of their contracts were stamped. Finding out is a filing exercise.
Search and tag. Achekam's Document Centre organises files into folders, lets you tag and search them, and keeps earlier versions when a file is replaced. Go through each contract folder and tag every agreement as "stamped", "not stamped" or "check". Search then gives you a list.
Signed copies with their fingerprints. Every file stored in Achekam is given a SHA-256 fingerprint, executable files are refused by default, and every upload passes a malware check. The fingerprint lets you show later that the signed copy in your files is the same file that was stored on a given date, which helps when you are putting a stamped copy beside the original.
New contracts. Documents sent for e-signature through Achekam come back as a signed PDF with a completion certificate, filed into Documents. Upload the stamped version as a new version of that signed file, so the history shows both.
A clean-up plan for older agreements
- List every agreement still in force or likely to matter in a dispute: customer contracts, supplier agreements, leases, loans, property deeds.
- Tag each one by stamping status.
- Rank the unstamped ones by how likely you are to need to enforce them and by how much is at stake.
- Ask your adviser which are dutiable, the duty and the penalty on each, and which authority stamps them.
- Stamp the important ones, starting at the top of the list, and keep the receipts.
- File each stamped copy as a new version of the signed contract, with its receipt in the same folder.
- Change the habit so new contracts are stamped within 30 days of signing.
The rules for stamping everyday agreements, including the fixed duty and who pays it, are in stamping business contracts in Nigeria. The higher-value case of buying property is in stamp duty when your business buys property.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
