{"id":20969,"date":"2026-10-05T08:12:52","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T08:12:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interspacemusic.com\/blog\/nigeria-tax-act-musicians-foreign-royalties-exemption\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T08:15:51","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T08:15:51","slug":"nigeria-tax-act-musicians-foreign-royalties-exemption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interspacemusic.com\/blog\/nigeria-tax-act-musicians-foreign-royalties-exemption\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria Ended Its Tax Break for Musicians’ Foreign Earnings. One Royalty Exemption Survived."},"content":{"rendered":"

Since 1 January 2026, Nigerian musicians owe income tax on foreign earnings that used to be exempt when paid into a domiciliary account. The Nigeria Tax Act 2025<\/a> removed that carve-out but kept a separate exemption for foreign royalties, and which rule your streaming money falls under is now the costliest question in an artist’s paperwork.<\/p>\n

The exemption that ended<\/h2>\n

PITA means the Personal Income Tax Act, which section 196 of the new Act repealed. Item 30 of its Third Schedule exempted “income earned from abroad by an author, sportsman, playwright, musician, artist” if it was paid into a domiciliary account, a foreign-currency account at a Nigerian bank, per Taxaide<\/a>.<\/p>\n

PwC’s Nigeria tax summary<\/a>, last reviewed in May 2026, is direct about the change: the new Act “no longer includes this exemption,” so resident musicians “must pay tax on their worldwide income.” Interest earned on domiciliary accounts is no longer exempt either.<\/p>\n

The exemption that survived<\/h2>\n

Section 163(1)(s) of the gazetted Act still exempts any “dividend, interest, rent or royalty derived from outside Nigeria and brought into Nigeria through approved channels.” The Act defines a royalty as payment for the use of, or the right to use, “any copyright.”<\/p>\n

A streaming payout for the use of your recordings fits that wording. The catch is section 4, which lists “profits or gains from any trade, business, profession or vocation” and “royalties” as separate kinds of income. A full-time artist’s catalogue income could be read either way, and the Act does not say which.<\/p>\n

“Approved channels” is not defined in the Act. BusinessDay’s reading<\/a> is that the rule reinforces “the role of regulated banks.” Money left offshore has not been brought into Nigeria at all, and a payout converted peer-to-peer is the hardest to defend.<\/p>\n

What the new bands cost<\/h2>\n

If your payouts are taxed as professional income instead, the Fourth Schedule bands apply to taxable income:<\/p>\n