Section 4

(1) Income, profits or gains of a person accruing in or derived from
profits or Nigeria, including –
gains
chargeable to (a) profits or gains from any trade, business, profession or vocation for
tax whatever period of time such trade or business may have been carried on;
(b) royalties, fees, rents or interests arising from a right granted for the
use, exploitation or occupation of any property;
(c) dividends, premium, charges or annuities;
(d) fees, dues, allowances, or any remuneration for services rendered;
(e) discounts or rebates;
(f) disposal of money or money instruments;
(g) income, profits or gains from disposal or lending of securities;
(h) prizes, winnings, honoraria, grants, awards, laurels, etc.;
(i) profits or gains from the disposal of property or fixed assets;
(j) profits or gains from transactions in digital or virtual assets; and
(k) any other income, profit or gain not falling within the preceding cat-
egories.
(2) Income, profits or gains of an individual, including –
(a) salaries, wages, fees, allowances, compensations, bonuses, premi-
ums, benefits or other perquisites allowed, given or granted by any person
to any employee other than payment for expenses incurred in the
performance of the duties of the employment, and from which it is not
intended that the employee should make any profit or gain; and
(b) any pension, annuity or any other similar income.
(3) Income of a family recognised under any law or custom in Nigeria as
family income in which the several interests of individual members of the
family cannot be separately determined, excluding income on inherited assets
before distribution.
(4) Income arising to a trustee of any settlement or trust, or estate or to
an executor of any estate of a deceased person.
(5) Any other income, profit or gain not falling within the preceding
categories.
(6) For the purposes of this section –
(a) interest –
(i) accrues in Nigeria where the liability to its payment falls upon a
resident of Nigeria or Nigerian permanent establishment of a non-resident
person regardless of where or in what form the interest is paid,
Nigeria Tax Act, 2025 2025 No. 7 A 395
(ii) includes, penal interests and any payment similar to interest, in-
come from any government or corporate securities, bonds or debentures,
premiums or prizes attaching to such securities, bonds or debentures,
discounts, fees, premium, share of profit in non-interest finance
arrangements, finance cost element in a finance lease, or foreign exchange
differences arising in relation to securities, any payment in relation to
derivatives used in hedging securities, or any other payment of similar
nature,
(iii) in respect of debts, includes return on discounted papers, income
from debt claims of every kind, whether or not secured by mortgage and
whether or not carrying a right to participate in the debtor's profits or
foreign exchange differences arising in relation to a debt, and
(iv) in respect of regulated securities lending transactions, includes
compensating payments received by a borrower from its approved agent
or a lender, provided that the underlying transaction giving rise to the
compensating payment is a receipt of interest by a lender on the collateral
it received from its approved agent or a borrower;
(b) dividend includes, in relation to -
(i) a company that is not in the process of being wound up or liquidated,
profits, in any form, shared or distributed to the shareholders, including
an amount equal to the nominal value of bonus shares, debentures or
securities awarded to the company's shareholders,
(ii) a company that is being wound up or liquidated, any distribution,
whether in money or money's worth, earned before or during the winding
up or liquidation, and
(iii) regulated securities lending transaction, compensating payments
received by a lender from its approved agent or borrower;
(c) "royalty" includes payments of any kind received or receivable, paid
or payable as a consideration for the use of, or the right to use or exploit any
property;
(d) "money instruments" means instruments traded in money markets
including government securities, treasury Acts, treasury or savings
certificates, debenture certificates, commercial papers, certificates of
deposits, call money, commercial Acts, treasury bonds and any other money
instrument; and
(e) the transfer of securities or shares under a regulated securities lending
transaction shall not amount to a disposal, provided that such securities or
shares are transferred from a lender and subsequently returned by the
borrower to the lender.