A gain on personal chattels of 5 million naira or less is exempt.
CGT due
—
Exemption status
—
Net gain after CGT
—
Your breakdown
Updates live as you type| Step | Amount |
|---|
What counts as a chattel, and why it matters
Chattels are movable personal effects: a watch, a painting, jewellery, furniture, a piece of equipment you owned privately. When you sell one for more than it cost you, the profit is a capital gain. Nigeria gives personal chattels a generous let-off, and this tool exists to tell you which side of that line your gain falls on, and what tax follows if it falls on the wrong side.
The rule the calculator models is a threshold test on the gain, not the sale price. A gain on personal chattels of NGN 5,000,000 or less is exempt from capital gains tax. Cross that figure and the treatment flips entirely: the whole gain, not just the part above NGN 5,000,000, folds into your chargeable income and is taxed at the personal income tax bands. That all-or-nothing edge is the thing most people miss.
The cliff edge at NGN 5,000,000
This is not a tapering allowance where only the excess is taxed. It is a cliff. A gain of NGN 5,000,000 is fully exempt and costs you nothing. A gain of NGN 5,000,001 is fully taxable, and the entire amount is added to your other income. That design rewards staying under the line and punishes drifting just over it. The exemption figure this calculator applies is NGN 5,000,000; because the 2025 reform reshaped the capital gains rules, confirm the current chattels exemption with the FIRS before relying on it. The "other chargeable income" you enter is not taxed again here. It only sets the band a taxable gain is charged at, since the gain stacks on top of your existing income.
A gain that tips over the line
Say you sell a personal asset for a gain of NGN 8,000,000, and your other chargeable income for the year is NGN 6,000,000. The gain exceeds the NGN 5,000,000 exemption, so the whole NGN 8,000,000 is taxable, not just the NGN 3,000,000 above the threshold. It stacks on your NGN 6,000,000 of income, which sits in the band the calculator applies at 18 percent (the slice from NGN 3 million to NGN 12 million), and the full NGN 8,000,000 fits inside that same band. So the tax is 18 percent of NGN 8,000,000, which is NGN 1,500,000, leaving a net gain of NGN 6,500,000. The tool finds this by taxing your income with and without the gain and taking the difference, all on the rates this calculator applies.
Practical judgement and a common trap
Because the exemption turns on a single transaction's gain, splitting one disposal into two does not obviously help, and dressing up a genuine business asset as a personal chattel invites scrutiny. The honest planning point is the cliff itself: if a private sale would land a gain a little over NGN 5,000,000, it is worth knowing that the tax applies to the full amount, so the marginal naira of gain can be expensive. The trap is confusing sale price with gain. Tax sits on the gain, your proceeds minus what the item cost you, not on the headline price. A NGN 9,000,000 sale of something you bought for NGN 7,000,000 is a NGN 2,000,000 gain, comfortably exempt. This tool is for individuals selling personal possessions, collectors, and anyone unsure whether a one-off private sale creates a tax bill.
Do I owe CGT on selling my used car?
Private vehicles have their own treatment rather than the chattels rule, so this calculator is not the right one for a car. Nigeria exempts gains on a limited number of private, non-commercial vehicles disposed of in a year. For a vehicle, use a vehicle-disposal tool and confirm the current limit with the FIRS, since the 2025 reform restated these exemptions.
If my gain is exactly NGN 5,000,000, is it taxed?
No. The exemption this calculator applies covers a gain at or below NGN 5,000,000, so a gain of exactly NGN 5,000,000 is exempt and the tool reports no CGT. It is the gains strictly above NGN 5,000,000 that become fully taxable. Confirm the precise threshold and its treatment with the FIRS or your state internal revenue service, as the figure is part of the reform still settling.