Withholding Taxes are basically taxes paid to the Federal or State Government on documents ( also known as instruments for the purpose of the Stamp Duties Act[SDA]) such as Conveyances on Sale, Bills of Exchange, Promissory notes, Agreements, Contracts or even documents such as Letters and Certificates of admission, Instruments of Apprenticeship, Insurance Policies etc. The payment of Stamp Duties is backed up by legislation the law being the Stamp Duties Act 1939 (as amended by numerous Acts and various resolutions and contained in Vol 22 Cap 411 LFN 1990) which also provides a list of documents in its Schedule and the duty payable on each of them.
The Federal Republic of Nigeria recently enacted into Law, the Finance Bill 2020 which amended various sections of the Nigerian Tax Laws such as the Company Income Tax (CIT), Value Added Tax (VAT) and the SDA. One of the Key amended in the Stamp Duty Act is the inclusion of electronic transactions as part of instruments liable to duties and the introduction of electronic stamping. Now it is easier and Faster