Visa holders · From Nigeria
One of six tests is enough to keep you a Nigerian tax resident, even after moving to the US from Nigeria. Taxes from both countries can then fall on the same income, and no treaty decides between them.
The Nigeria Tax Act, 2025 took effect on January 1, 2026, and taxes an individual’s capital gains as income. Its reach depends on residence: worldwide income for a resident, but only Nigerian income, such as rent or interest, for a non-resident. If Nigeria still counts you as resident, it may tax your US pay with no credit for the US tax. Its credit covers only foreign income, and the Act may treat a resident’s pay as Nigerian. The US credits Nigeria’s tax on your Nigerian rent, interest and gains, within its limit.
Updated · Sources
Your money in Nigeria, 2026
- 25%
- is the top rate on Nigeria’s 2026 scale, charged on taxable income above ₦50 million.
- Age 50
- is the earliest most holders of a retirement savings account (RSA) can draw their existing balance, and only once retired. Moving abroad does not bring it forward.
- $10,000
- is the FBAR line, or ₦14.5 million across all your foreign accounts at Treasury’s rate for December 31, 2025.
The Personal Income Tax Act and the Capital Gains Tax Act gave way to the 2026 law. The FBAR for 2026 will use Treasury’s rate for December 31, 2026.
Does leaving Nigeria end your Nigerian tax residence?
Nigeria’s year of assessment is the calendar year. The Act sets no date within a year when residence ends, so the year you leave may count in full.
You keep a home in Nigeria
Two tests turn on a home: a permanent place kept available for your domestic use, and a place of habitual abode. As written, the first needs only that the place be available to you, not that you live in it.
Your family and finances stay in Nigeria
Substantial economic and immediate family ties to Nigeria make you resident too. The Act does not say how strong those ties must be, or how the test applies once you live abroad.
You are domiciled in Nigeria
Nigerian domicile is a test of its own, yet the Act never defines it. Whether it reaches a Nigerian on a US visa or green card is a question for your adviser in Nigeria.
You spend 183 days in Nigeria
Days in Nigeria that add up to 183 or more in a 12-month period make you resident. Annual leave and temporary absences count toward that total.
Under the sixth test, a diplomat or diplomatic agent serving Nigeria abroad stays resident. A move made in 2025 is generally taxed in Nigeria for that year under the Personal Income Tax Act, since repealed. The US taxes Nigerian income only from your residency starting date, set by a green card, the substantial presence test or the first-year choice. A sale before that date stays outside US tax, unless a joint-return election makes you resident all year.
A Lagos home that gains ₦76 million in naira can show a loss in dollars for US tax.
Nigeria taxes a non-resident’s gain on property in Nigeria. The US measures the same sale in dollars, converting what you paid and what you got at the rate on each date.
Your gain in naira
₦76 million
Nigeria counts the whole gain as your income for 2026, because the flat is in Nigeria.
Nigeria’s tax on that gain
₦16.93 million
This assumes no other Nigerian income or reliefs.
Your gain for US tax
$0
In dollars, the flat cost $100,000 and sold for $90,445, a $9,555 loss. A loss on a home you lived in is not deductible. Nigeria’s tax on the sale can then cut US tax only on other foreign income, within the credit limit.
Nigeria’s 2026 scale charges 0% on the first ₦800,000 of taxable income. The next four bands, of ₦2.2 million, ₦9 million, ₦13 million and ₦25 million, pay 15%, 18%, 21% and 23%. Above ₦50 million, the rate is 25%. On ₦76 million, that comes to ₦330,000, ₦1,620,000, ₦2,730,000, ₦5,750,000 and ₦6,500,000, or ₦16,930,000 in all. The Act sets no separate rate for a non-resident’s gain, so the example assumes this scale. The example also assumes you already used Nigeria’s once-in-a-lifetime exemption for a dwelling-house, which would otherwise remove this tax. The dollar figures use Treasury reporting rates of 440 naira for December 31, 2022 and 1,326.78 for September 30, 2026.
No US-Nigeria tax treaty is in force, so Nigeria’s own law decides its tax on what you keep there.
These rows apply once Nigeria treats you as a non-resident and the US treats you as a resident. Nigeria’s withholding rates come from its 2024 regulations, which the new Act keeps in force unless they conflict with it.
| Nigeria | US | |
|---|---|---|
| Interest on a naira or domiciliary (foreign currency) account | 10% withheld The final tax for a non-resident, at the 2024 rate | Taxed |
| Interest on Federal or State Government bonds | Exempt | Taxed A bond you hold directly is not a PFIC (passive foreign investment company) |
| Rent from property in Nigeria | Taxed 10% withheld is final if a company or public body pays the rent. Otherwise you file a Nigerian return. | Taxed Generally depreciated over 30 years |
| Dividends from a Nigerian mutual fund | Exempt | PFIC rules Not qualified dividends |
| Gain on shares in a Nigerian company | Often exempt Exempt when proceeds stay under ₦150 million and the gain is ₦10 million or less in 12 months. | Taxed |
Nigerian savings that look settled can still bring a US tax bill or a penalty.
Keeping units in Nigerian mutual funds
Nigeria treats most collective investment schemes as pass-through, looking past the fund to its investors. US rules generally treat a Nigerian unit trust or fund company as a foreign corporation, and usually as a PFIC. Each such fund generally needs its own Form 8621 every year. Unless you make an election, a gain on sale is ordinary income. The share spread over your earlier US-resident years is taxed at the top rate, plus interest.
Waiting for your bank to report you
Nigeria has no FATCA agreement with the US, but your filing duty never depended on your bank. Once your foreign accounts pass the thresholds, you file the FBAR and Form 8938 yourself. Domiciliary, naira, fixed-deposit and fund accounts count, as do the non-resident accounts the Central Bank of Nigeria launched in January 2025. An RSA likely counts as a foreign pension plan for Form 8938, and listing it on the FBAR is the cautious course.
Converting naira without tracking the rate
Converting or spending naira from an interest-bearing deposit generally creates an ordinary currency gain or loss under IRC 988. On Treasury’s rates, ₦1 million was worth $2,273 at the end of 2022 and $649 two years later. Dollar balances in a domiciliary account have no such gain or loss.
Expecting a Nigerian payroll to cover Social Security
US Social Security and Medicare generally apply to work you do in the US, even if a Nigerian employer keeps paying you. No US-Nigeria agreement offers a certificate of coverage to exempt you. Nigeria stops requiring RSA contributions once you work abroad. Under 2025 guidelines from the National Pension Commission (PenCom), you can keep paying in dollars.
We work out where your RSA and naira savings belong on your US returns.
At Valim, our licensed CPAs prepare and sign your US returns, including for any year Nigeria still counts you as resident.
- We prepare every federal and state return from your first US year, which is often dual-status. Your accountant in Nigeria files any Nigerian return, and we share figures with them.
- Once your foreign accounts together pass $10,000, we list each Nigerian account on your FBAR. We add them to Form 8938 when your foreign assets cross its higher thresholds. Each Nigerian fund gets the Form 8621 it generally needs, and a Nigerian company gets Form 5471 where one is due. The instant quote charges per account, per fund and per such company.
- We decide how your RSA is reported and taxed, and record why, since the IRS has issued nothing on RSAs. If you still hold Nigerian funds or property, we work out the US tax on selling before your residency starting date and after it.
- We claim your foreign tax credit on Form 1116, and carry any credit the limit blocks to other years. If your US withholding does not cover the tax on Nigerian rent and interest, we set quarterly estimated payments for the gap.
- We prepare Form 3520 for any year in which one nonresident alien giver and their relatives give you more than $100,000.
- Our reply to any IRS or state notice on a return we prepared adds nothing to your fee, even one questioning a naira loss.
- Individual return
- from $195
- Business return
- from $495
We quote a flat fee before work starts. We do not bill hourly.
How do Nigeria and the US each tax you after the move?
How will Nigerians be taxed?
From your US residency starting date, the US taxes your income from everywhere, Nigerian interest, rent and gains included. Before that date, Nigerian income is outside US tax, unless an election makes you resident for the whole year. Nigeria’s 2026 law taxes its residents on worldwide income at 0% to 25%, and non-residents only on Nigerian income. With no treaty, both countries can tax the same income, and neither credits the other’s tax on income it treats as its own.
Does Nigeria have a tax treaty with the US?
No, there is no US-Nigeria tax treaty in force. The IRS list of US income tax treaties, reviewed January 3, 2026, has no Nigeria entry. The State Department’s Treaties in Force 2025 lists no tax agreement with Nigeria either. So Nigeria’s withholding has no treaty cap, and no tie-breaker settles your residence if both countries claim you. Double tax is eased only by credits: the US foreign tax credit on Nigerian income, and Nigeria’s credit on foreign income.
What happens to my Nigerian pension (RSA) when I move to the US?
Your retirement savings account (RSA) stays with your Pension Fund Administrator, and moving abroad does not let you cash it out. The Pension Reform Act bars withdrawals before age 50. The exceptions are medical or disability grounds, early retirement under your employment terms, and a 25% withdrawal after a job ends. That 25% needs four months without new work, which a US job likely rules out. Nigeria exempts the account’s income and benefits, except income on voluntary contributions withdrawn within five years. The US may still tax payouts in full. Under IRC 72(w), contributions and growth from before your US residency that were never taxed anywhere give you no US basis. The IRS has said nothing about RSAs, so how the US treats their yearly growth is unsettled.
Do I pay US tax on money my family sends from Nigeria?
No, the US does not tax gifts as income, even large ones from abroad. If one nonresident alien giver and their relatives give you more than $100,000 in a year, you report the gifts on Form 3520. Filing it late can cost 5% of the gifts for each month, up to 25%, unless you show reasonable cause. The Nigeria Tax Act has no gift tax and does not list gifts received as income. Moving your own savings to the US is neither a gift nor income.
Sources
- Nigeria Tax Act, 2025 (Official Gazette No. 117, Vol. 112), gazette copy hosted by the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service
- Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025, National Assembly copy
- Pension Reform Act, 2014 (National Pension Commission)
- National Pension Commission, Frequently Asked Questions (2020)
- National Pension Commission, Guidelines on Foreign Currency Pension Contributions (September 2025)
- Investments and Securities Act, 2025 (Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigeria)
- Deduction of Tax at Source (Withholding) Regulations, 2024 (archived copy)
- Central Bank of Nigeria, Reforms (non-resident Nigerian accounts)
- IRS, United States income tax treaties, A to Z
- US Department of State, Treaties in Force (2025)
- Social Security Administration, totalization agreements overview
- US Treasury, Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act
- US Treasury, Fiscal Data, Treasury Reporting Rates of Exchange
- IRS, Publication 519 (2025), U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens
- 26 U.S.C. § 7701, Definitions
- 26 U.S.C. § 1, Tax imposed (qualified dividends, section 1(h)(11))
- 26 U.S.C. § 72, Annuities; certain proceeds of endowment and life insurance contracts
- 26 U.S.C. § 102, Gifts and inheritances
- 26 U.S.C. § 165, Losses
- 26 U.S.C. § 168, Accelerated cost recovery system (alternative depreciation system, section 168(g))
- 26 U.S.C. § 901, Taxes of foreign countries and of possessions of United States
- 26 U.S.C. § 904, Limitation on credit
- 26 U.S.C. § 988, Treatment of certain foreign currency transactions
- 26 C.F.R. § 1.988-2, Recognition and computation of exchange gain or loss
- 26 U.S.C. § 1291, Interest on tax deferral
- 26 U.S.C. § 1297, Passive foreign investment company
- 26 C.F.R. § 1.1298-1, Section 1298(f) annual reporting for PFIC shareholders (Form 8621)
- 26 C.F.R. § 301.7701-3, Classification of certain business entities
- 26 C.F.R. § 301.7701-4, Trusts
- 26 U.S.C. § 3101, Rate of tax (Social Security and Medicare)
- 26 U.S.C. § 3121, Definitions (employment, section 3121(b))
- 26 U.S.C. § 6013, Joint returns of income tax by husband and wife (sections 6013(g) and (h))
- 31 C.F.R. § 1010.350, Reports of foreign financial accounts
- IRS, Instructions for Form 8938
- IRS, Instructions for Form 3520 (Rev. December 2025)
Reviewed and updated October 2026. General information, not advice for your situation.