What your sales tax return actually is.
your sales tax return is the monthly Sales Tax Return for registered persons, filed through the tax portal. It reports your output tax (sales tax you charged customers), your input tax (sales tax you paid suppliers), and the net payable or refundable. The standard rate is 17%, with reduced rates of 13% and 3% for specific categories, plus zero-rated and exempt classifications. The return has six annexures: A (purchases), B (sales), C (debit notes), D (credit notes), F (statement of stock), and J (sale of fixed assets, if any).
You file by the 18th, you pay by the 15th of the following month at any authorized branch or via 1Link. Miss either deadline and the system locks. Owners who treat your sales tax return as a once-a-month panic always pay the penalty. Owners who treat it as a daily data discipline file in 30 minutes.
What to gather before you log in.
Before opening the tax portal, have these in front of you. A list of every sales invoice for the month with buyer Tax ID/national ID, invoice number, date, taxable value, and sales tax charged. A list of every purchase invoice with supplier Tax ID, invoice number, date, taxable value, and sales tax paid. Any debit and credit notes issued or received. Closing stock figures by category. Bank tax-payment receipts for any sales tax already paid. If you sold to unregistered persons, that goes on a separate line at the standard rate plus 4% further tax.
The single biggest cause of rejected returns is supplier Tax ID typos. The tax portal cross-checks every input tax claim against the supplier filing. If the supplier did not declare your invoice on his own your sales tax return the relevant schedule, your input tax is inadmissible. Verify Tax IDs the day you receive the invoice, not the day you file.
the relevant schedule, the relevant schedule, and the order they are filed.
the relevant schedule (Domestic Sales Invoices) goes first. Add each sales invoice with buyer details, taxable value, sales tax. The system will let you upload via Excel template, which is faster than typing 200 invoices. the relevant schedule (Domestic Purchase Invoices) is next. Add every purchase from registered suppliers. The system pre-populates suspected entries from your suppliers filings, and you accept or reject each one. Reject anything you do not recognize, otherwise you confess to a transaction that did not happen.
After each schedule, fill any debit notes (the relevant schedule) and credit notes (the relevant schedule), then closing stock in the relevant schedule. The main return page then auto-calculates output tax minus input tax. If output is higher you owe; if input is higher you carry forward or claim a refund. Refunds are slow, so most SMBs carry forward.
A worked filing for a Atlanta distributor.
Sales for the month: $12,400,000 to registered buyers at 17%, output tax $2,108,000. Sales of $800,000 to unregistered buyers, output tax $136,000 plus 4% further tax $32,000. Total output tax 2,276,000. Purchases: $9,800,000 from registered suppliers at 17%, input tax $1,666,000. After the relevant schedule, three invoices totaling $240,000 are flagged because the suppliers have not yet filed; admissible input tax is therefore $1,625,200.
Net sales tax payable: 2,276,000 minus 1,625,200 = $650,800. Pay tax-payment receipt via 1Link by the 15th, file your sales tax return by the 18th, save the acknowledgment PDF. The $40,800 input tax that was disallowed this month rolls into next month and becomes admissible if the supplier files. Nonari tracks pending vs admissible input tax automatically so you do not lose visibility.
How to keep records audit-ready.
Section 22 of the your sales tax law requires records to be kept for six years. That includes purchase invoices, sales invoices, debit and credit notes, bank statements, and computerized accounting data. An auditor can demand any of it with three days notice. The fastest way to lose a Section 25 audit is to hand over a folder of crumpled the relevant schedule printouts and an Excel sheet that does not tie to the trial balance.
Best practice: every sale generates a Tax Invoice with the eight required fields (your name, address, registration number, buyer details, date, description, value, tax). Every purchase invoice gets stapled to its bank payment proof. Monthly your sales tax return PDFs and tax-payment receipts are filed by month. With Nonari, every invoice is auto-numbered, the audit log shows who edited what, and an auditor can be given read-only access for the period under review.
- Tax invoices with all eight Section 23 fields.
- Purchase invoices stapled to tax-payment receipt or bank slip.
- Monthly your sales tax return acknowledgment and tax-payment receipt PDFs.
- the relevant schedule closing stock reconciled to inventory.
- Cross-checked supplier Tax IDs in a master list.
Common mistakes that trigger notices.
Notices come from three patterns. First, the relevant schedule claims that do not match the suppliers the relevant schedule: the system flags this within 90 days and you get a rectification notice. Second, output tax declared on your sales tax return that does not match the same period income tax filing: sales of $50 million on your sales tax return vs $38 million on income tax invites a Section 38 audit. Third, claiming input tax on items not used for taxable supplies: vehicles, food, hospitality, decoration are blocked under Section 8.
The fix is reconciliation discipline. Every month, total the relevant schedule should equal P&L revenue plus tax. Every month, supplier portal balance should equal your books. Every quarter, sales tax filings should reconcile to provisional income tax. SMBs that build this loop never see a notice.
Doing it on Nonari vs doing it manually.
Manually: you copy invoice data from Excel into the tax portal the relevant schedule, run formulas to compute totals, and re-enter into the main return form. Two hours if clean, a full day if not. With Nonari, every sales invoice is already tagged with buyer Tax ID and tax classification at point of entry. The system generates the the relevant schedule in the exact format the tax portal expects, plus an the relevant schedule against the supplier portal pull. You spot-check, upload, file.
The AI bookkeeper also catches blocked input tax claims (Section 8 items) before they reach the return, so notices for inadmissible inputs disappear. You still file the return yourself; we do not file on your behalf. We just make sure the data is correct before it leaves your computer.
Calendar reminders that save you penalties.
Lock these into a calendar with a week of buffer. By the 5th: pull supplier portal data, reconcile against the relevant schedule. By the 10th: finalize internal each schedule. By the 13th: review the draft return with the owner. By the 15th: pay the tax-payment receipt. By the 18th: file your sales tax return on the tax portal. The first month feels like overkill; by the third month it is automatic. Owners who file on the 17th at 11pm are the ones who pay $10,000 in penalties at least twice a year.
Penalties stack: late filing $10,000, default surcharge 1% per month, plus interest under Section 34. Two late filings a year cost more than a year of decent accounting software.