The 10% withholding tax a tenant deducts from rent, and the net remitted to the landlord.
WHT to deduct
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Net to landlord
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WHT rate
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Why the tenant, not the landlord, hands money to the tax office
Rent is one of the cleaner withholding situations in Nigeria because the rate barely moves. A tenant who pays rent, hire, or a lease charge deducts 10 percent and sends it to the revenue authority, then pays the landlord the remaining 90 percent. The tenant acts as an unpaid collection agent for the state. That feels odd the first time, since the landlord is the one earning the income, but the design is deliberate: catching the tax at the point of payment is far easier than chasing every landlord at filing time. This calculator shows the two numbers a tenant needs before cutting the cheque, the amount to withhold and the net that reaches the landlord.
The 10 percent figure is the rate this calculator applies, and it has held steady for rent across many years. Even so, the 2025 tax reform is in transition, so confirm the current rate with the FIRS, the Federal Inland Revenue Service, or your state internal revenue service before you remit, especially if you are a company tenant with formal reporting obligations.
Working through a NGN 3 million annual rent
Take a tenant paying NGN 3,000,000 a year for office space. Using the rate this calculator applies, the tenant withholds 10 percent, which is NGN 300,000, and pays the landlord NGN 2,700,000. The NGN 300,000 goes to the revenue service, and the landlord later claims it as a credit against the income tax due on that rental income.
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The chart shows the single rent payment split into the 90 percent that reaches the landlord and the 10 percent routed to the tax authority.
Federal or state: who keeps the NGN 300,000
One detail people gloss over is where the remittance goes, and it depends on the landlord. If the landlord is a company, the WHT belongs to the federal pot and is handled through the FIRS. If the landlord is an individual, the deduction is an advance on personal income tax, which is administered by the state internal revenue service of the state where that individual is taxed, for example the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service for a Lagos-resident landlord. Same 10 percent, different destination, and remitting to the wrong authority can leave the credit stranded.
Who should use this, and the mistake to avoid
The tool fits company tenants, serviced-office operators, and any business signing a lease, as well as landlords who want to check the deduction on a tenant's payment advice. The most common error is treating the 10 percent as an extra cost piled on top of the rent. It is not. The total leaving the tenant is still the agreed rent. The 10 percent is simply carved out of it and redirected. A landlord who understands that will price rent on the gross figure and rely on the credit to recover the withheld portion at filing, rather than trying to gross the rent up to cover a tax that was never additional.
Questions tenants and landlords ask
Does WHT apply to a rent deposit or only the rent itself?
The deduction attaches to the rent, hire, or lease charge. A refundable security deposit is not income to the landlord, so it sits outside the rent figure you enter here. Service charges and caution fees can be a grey area, so check whether your lease bundles them into rent before withholding on the lot.
When must the tenant remit what was withheld?
Remittance is due within the window the law sets after the deduction, commonly counted from the month of payment, and late remittance draws its own penalty and interest separate from the rent. Diarise the deadline the moment you deduct, because the tenant, not the landlord, carries that exposure. Confirm the exact filing window with your state internal revenue service or the FIRS.
What if a private individual rents from another individual?
Formal WHT collection is built around organised payers such as companies and government bodies that keep tax records. A purely private tenant-to-landlord arrangement often falls outside it in practice, but the landlord still owes income tax on the rent received. If you are unsure whether your arrangement triggers a deduction, the state revenue service can confirm.