Most Nigerians will pay 0.78% stamp duty on rent, not 6%

Stamp duty on most rent agreements in Nigeria is at the rate of 0.78 percent and not 6 percent as being widely circulated, according to Taiwo Oyedele, head of tax at PwC.

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on Wednesday said landlords and property agents should charge 6 percent stamp duty on all tenancy and lease agreements they enter into with all leases and remit same promptly to the Service.

However, Oyedele explained in a tweet that based on the Stamp Duties Act, stamp duty on lease or rent agreement is payable as follows:
If the lease term is less than seven years, stamp duty rate is 0.78 percent (e.g. N780 on N100,000 rent). For a term of 7+ to 21 years, stamp duty rate is 3 percent (meaning N3,000 for N100,000 rent). For a term above 21 years, stamp duty rate is 6 percent (e.g. N6,000 for N100,000 rent).

“Given that most people enter into rent agreements for less than seven years, the applicable stamp duty rate to most people will be 0.78 percent,” Oyedele said.

If you are an individual renting from another individual, he said, your stamp duty is payable to the state tax authority such as Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) if you are resident in Lagos. If either the tenant or the landlord is a company, then the duty is payable to FIRS.

The obligation to pay stamp duty on rent rests with the tenant. However, FIRS is seeking to appoint the landlord as the agent to collect and remit the tax, Oyedele said.

Hope Moses-Ashike

Hope Moses-Ashike is an Associate Editor, Banking and Finance, with more than a decade of experience reporting on Nigeria’s financial system and broader economy. She closely tracks market movements, monetary policy decisions, company disclosures, regulatory actions, economic indicators, and global developments, and interprets what they mean for businesses, investors, policymakers, and households. Her reporting helps readers understand complex issues such as inflation trends, foreign exchange market dynamics, interest rate decisions, bank performance, and investment risks. She also covers major international events and periodically travels to Washington, D.C., to report on the World Bank/IMF Spring and Annual Meetings. Her dedication to financial journalism has earned her multiple recognitions and invitations to high-level professional development programmes. She is an alumna of the International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) in the United States and holds an Advanced Financial Journalism Certificate from the Press Association Training in London, UK. Her other notable achievements include completing the Lagos Business School CMC Programme, the Bloomberg Media Africa Initiative Programme, and a Master Class in Journalism at Rhodes University in South Africa.