The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has clarified the categories of stamp duties to be paid by tenants.

The FIRS on Wednesday mandated landlords and property agents to charge 6 percent Stamp Duty on all tenancy and lease agreements.

This decision has generated a strong debate among Nigerians on social media.

However on Saturday, Director, Tax Policy of the FIRS, Mr. Mathew Gbonjubola during a webinar conference put clarity to the rates.

Mr. Gbonjubola explained that “the 6% stamp duty is for tenancy above 21 years while 7 to 21 years lease or tenancy attracts 3% and less than 7-year tenancy is below 1%.”

Mr. Femi Oluwaniyi, Coordinating Director, Tax Operations Group of the FIRS told The Nation that stamp duty on rent or lease only applies to new agreements and not to renewals.

According to him, “if a new agreement is drawn up at renewal, that document should be stamped, just like initial Agreement. If, however, the renewal terms are already in the initial Agreement such that no new document is prepared but just payment of the rent for renewal, then no stamping is required.”

During the virtual conference, the panellists said that “Nigerians should accept the fact that the country can no longer rely solely on revenue accruing from its natural resources to fund the budget, hence the need to embrace taxation as the new normal of national fiscal policy.”

Taiwo Oyedele of PriceWaterhouseCoopers in his twitter account stated that “stamp duty on most rent agreements is at the rate of 0.78%, not 6% as being widely circulated.”

According to Oyedele, “based on the Stamp Duties Act, stamp duty on lease or rent agreement is payable as follows: If the lease term is less than 7 years, stamp duty rate is 0.78% (e.g. N780 on N100k rent). For a term of 7+ to 21 years, stamp duty rate is 3% (means N3k for N100k rent). For a term above 21 years, stamp duty rate is 6% (e.g. N6k for N100k rent)

He noted that “given that most people enter into rent agreements for less than 7 years, the applicable stamp duty rate to most people will be 0.78%.”

Oyedele further explained that “if you are an individual renting from another individual, your stamp duty is payable to the state tax authority such as LIRS if you are resident in Lagos. If either the tenant or the landlord is a company, then the duty is payable to FIRS.”

He reiterated that “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.”

Some other Stamp Duty types and their rates are Appraisement or Valuation of Property, 1.5%; Certificate of Occupancy, Partnership N1,000 flat rate; Gift of Land, 1.5%; Legal Mortgage, 0.375%; Legal Mortgage (Upstamping), 0.375%; Deed of Conveyance or Transfer on Sale of Property, 1.5%; Memorandum of Understanding (Related to Land, Sales, Joint Venture, Surrender, Subdivision Agreements, 1.5%; Power of Attorney (Irrevocable/Land Related), 1.5%; and Sales Agreement, 1.5%.

https://thenationonlineng.net/tenants-to-pay-0-78-percent-stamp-duty-firs-clarifies/

Buhari will eventually kill his citizens with tax. What am I even saying, dead already

Among you taxe collectors which of you paying stamp duty.

Stamp duty is another Avenue that commercial banks use to scamming Nigerians.

People should know that the main reason our government is initiating so many taxes is just to find a way to offset the numerous loans they took from different countries and institutions.

How about Tenement Rate and Land Use charge?
How such charges won't be applicable again or we need pay this two taxes?

They're looking for more money to settle more bokoharam boys.

It's about time the yorubas start giving the Igbos certificate of Occupancy.

Without that they won't be able to collect Tax money from them.

How can they pay tax for a house they don't own



Na for under bridge things.
Eko ni Jimmy Agbaje.

God will punish anyone that stood in the line to vote Buhari expecially at 2019.....

Accident will take out their family members one after the other.... It shall never be well with such fools

bigpicture001:
God will punish anyone that stood in the line to vote Buhari expecially at 2019.....

Accident will take out their family members one after the other.... It shall never be well with such fools

SW almajiris and northerners combined to bring him in. As though that was not enough, they brought in Kemi Adeosun as their answer to Okonjo-Iweala.

Little surprise we are where we are now.

All because it was a massive source of painment to them, that a SS man was the president. Jealousy wouldn't let them see logic.

Today Nigeria is heavily burdened by loans, and now the citizens are meant to bear the burden through taxes. I don't think we have seen the last of these taxes. More will come.

That is why it is highly disadvantageous to be in the same country with known low-intelligence groups, like SW-almajiris and Fulanis, as the yearly WAEC and NECO lists have shown

chai, who do us?