Capital Gains Tax for Nigerian businesses under NTA 2025 (2026 guide)

Capital Gains Tax (CGT) in Nigeria was, for years, a quiet flat 10% that few businesses thought much about. The Nigeria Tax Act 2025 (NTA 2025) ended that. From 1 January 2026, corporate gains are taxed at the 30% Company Income Tax rate, individuals are taxed at progressive personal-income rates, and the net of chargeable assets is widened to catch digital assets, intellectual property and foreign-exchange gains. This guide is for Nigerian business owners and finance teams: what is now taxable, at what rate, who is exempt, and how to file — with a worked example.

At a glance: CGT before and after

Sources: Nigeria Revenue Service (nrs.gov.ng) · EY — Nigeria Tax Act 2025 highlights · Bloomberg Tax — Nigeria redefines CGT for individuals · PwC — The Nigerian Tax Reform Acts · Nigeria Tax Act 2025; Finance Act 2020.

A note on the rate. Some early summaries quoted a 25% corporate CGT figure. The authoritative reading — confirmed by EY and Bloomberg Tax — is that NTA 2025 harmonises corporate CGT with the Company Income Tax rate of 30%, not a standalone 25%. The 25% figure is the top of the individual progressive scale, not the corporate rate. This guide uses 30% for companies and 0%–25% progressive for individuals, and we flag the distinction because it is easy to conflate.

1. What Capital Gains Tax is, and what changed

CGT is charged on the chargeable gain made when you dispose of a chargeable asset — the disposal consideration less the allowable cost of acquiring and improving it. Under the Finance Act 2020 regime, both companies and individuals paid a flat 10% on that gain.

NTA 2025 replaced the flat rate with two different regimes, effective 1 January 2026:

• Companies pay CGT at the CIT rate — 30%. Corporate gains are effectively folded into the company tax framework rather than sitting as a separate 10% charge.
• Individuals pay CGT at their progressive personal-income-tax rates. A gain is added to the individual's other income and taxed through the same bands — 0% on the first ₦800,000, then 15% / 18% / 21% / 23% / 25% — so a low earner's modest gain may be tax-free while a high earner faces up to 25%.

2. Corporate CGT: 30%, aligned with CIT

For a company, a chargeable gain in 2026 is taxed at 30%, the same as its trading profits under CIT. The mechanics of computing the gain also tightened:

Gain = disposal consideration − allowable cost. Where capital allowances were claimed on the asset, the deductible cost is the tax written-down value, not the original historical cost. Where no allowances were claimed, historical cost applies.

That distinction matters: a company that has depreciated an asset for tax and then sells it above written-down value has a larger chargeable gain than the raw "sale price minus purchase price" suggests. Finance teams should reconcile the CGT computation to the capital-allowances register, not just the fixed-asset cost.

3. Individual CGT: now at PIT rates

Individuals no longer enjoy the flat 10%. A capital gain is stacked on top of the person's other income and taxed at the NTA 2025 personal brackets:

Because gains combine with income, a business owner who realises a large one-off gain in a year can be pushed into the top 25% band on the upper slice — a materially different outcome from the old flat 10%. See our CRA-abolished PAYE explainer for how these same bands drive salary tax.

4. Chargeable assets: the net is wider

NTA 2025 modernised what counts as a chargeable asset. Alongside the traditional list — land, buildings, shares, stocks, securities, options, debts and goodwill — the Act expressly brings in:

• Digital and virtual assets — including cryptocurrencies and NFTs. A digital asset is treated as situated in Nigeria where the holder is resident in Nigeria (or has a Nigerian permanent establishment to which the asset relates), so Nigerian-resident crypto disposals are within scope.
• Intellectual property — patents, trademarks, copyrights and similar incorporeal property.
• Foreign-exchange gains — gains arising on FX are chargeable.

This is a deliberate broadening of the base to reflect how modern businesses actually hold value. If your company trades crypto, licenses IP, or realises FX gains on foreign-currency positions, those disposals are now on the CGT map.

5. Exemptions and reliefs

Not every disposal triggers CGT. The principal reliefs to check:

• Small companies are exempt. A company that meets the small-company test — turnover ≤ ₦50M and fixed assets ≤ ₦250M (both required) — is exempt from CGT, as it is from CIT and the Development Levy. See our small-company exemption guide.
• Reinvested share proceeds / reorganisations. Longstanding reliefs for gains rolled over into acquiring shares, and for qualifying corporate reorganisations, continue to feature in the CGT framework — confirm the precise conditions with your adviser for your transaction.
• Compensation for loss of employment / personal injury. NTA 2025 raised the exemption for compensation on loss of office to ₦50M (from ₦10M under the Finance Act 2020) — relevant where a terminal payment could otherwise be characterised as a chargeable receipt. See severance and redundancy under NTA 2025.

Because exemption conditions are fact-specific, treat the above as a checklist to raise with your accountant, not a self-clearance.

6. Worked example: a company sells land

Marigold Ltd (not a small company) bought commercial land in 2019 for ₦40,000,000, spent ₦5,000,000 on improvements, and sells it in 2026 for ₦120,000,000. No capital allowances were claimed on the land.

Allowable cost = ₦40,000,000 + ₦5,000,000 = ₦45,000,000 Chargeable gain = ₦120,000,000 − ₦45,000,000 = ₦75,000,000 CGT @ 30% = ₦22,500,000

Under the old Finance Act 2020 flat 10%, the same gain would have cost ₦7,500,000. NTA 2025 triples the bill to ₦22,500,000 — a ₦15,000,000 difference on one disposal. Had Marigold been a qualifying small company, the CGT would be ₦0.

Common mistakes and filing

1. Applying 10% in 2026. The flat 10% is a Finance Act 2020 rate. Corporate disposals from 1 January 2026 are at 30%.
2. Using 25% as the corporate rate. 25% is the individual top band; the corporate rate is 30% (aligned to CIT).
3. Ignoring written-down value. Where allowances were claimed, the gain is measured against tax written-down value, inflating the taxable gain.
4. Missing digital-asset and FX disposals. Crypto, NFTs, IP and FX gains are now chargeable — they must be captured, not just land and shares.
5. Assuming CGT is a separate return. For companies, corporate gains sit within the CIT framework and are filed with the Nigeria Revenue Service alongside the annual CIT return; keep disposal contracts, cost evidence and the capital-allowances reconciliation with the computation.

Corporate CGT is reported to the Nigeria Revenue Service with the company's annual return; individuals report gains through their personal-income filing with the relevant State Internal Revenue Service. Keep contemporaneous records — acquisition cost, improvement receipts, disposal consideration — because the NRS increasingly cross-checks declared gains against registry and banking data.

Does AnooreHR handle this?

AnooreHR computes corporate CGT at the profile-driven rate — 10% for disposals dated under the Finance Act 2020, 30% from 1 January 2026 under NTA 2025 — and reconciles the gain to the capital-allowances register so the tax written-down-value rule is applied correctly, not skipped. Disposals of digital assets, IP and FX positions can be tagged as chargeable, and qualifying small companies are automatically zero-rated in line with the small-company test. Every computation stores the hash of the tax profile used, giving an audit-grade record of which rate applied to which disposal. To model a specific disposal, book a demo or sign up free.

Frequently asked questions

Related: The NTA 2025 small company tax exemption · Nigerian CIT and Development Levy under NTA 2025 · See pricing