Compliance Context
This page explains the regulatory backdrop qbill operates in — useful for finance and compliance readers, not just developers, who land on this documentation too.
Why this exists
Under the Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025, an invoice without an NRS-issued IRN is not a valid tax document — it cannot support VAT input credit or corporate tax expense recognition for the buyer. That's why qbill validates and transmits every invoice for clearance rather than treating submission as optional paperwork.
Phased rollout & thresholds
qbill's own customers span this whole range, so nothing in the product assumes "large taxpayer" as the default case.
| Category | Annual turnover | Go-live | Compliance enforcement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Large taxpayers | ≥ ₦5bn | November 2025 | April 2026, hard deadline 31 July 2026 |
| Medium taxpayers | ₦1bn – ₦5bn | 1 July 2026 | January 2027 |
| Emerging taxpayers | < ₦1bn | 1 July 2027 | January 2028 |
Penalties
Under the Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025 (ATAS):
| Violation | Penalty |
|---|---|
| Refusing platform access | ₦25,000 for month one, ₦10,000 each subsequent month |
| Issuing or processing supplies outside the system (s.104 NTAA 2025) | ₦200,000 administrative penalty + 100% of the VAT due on that invoice + interest at 2% above the CBN Monetary Policy Rate |
| Invoices not routed through MBS | Invalid for tax purposes — no input VAT credit, no corporate-tax expense recognition, for the buyer |
Records retention & accreditation
Standard Nigerian tax record retention is 6 years from the end of the relevant tax year, applying to both the original structured document (XML/JSON) and a human-readable rendering, with the signature remaining verifiable for the full period.
Both the System Integrator and Access Point Provider roles require NITDA accreditation: ISO/IEC 27001, OAuth 2.0, alignment with the PEPPOL interoperability framework, and proof of financial continuity, with periodic re-audit. qbill operates as both roles for its customers.
A buyer can dispute a cleared invoice