What you are experiencing is actually common in Nigeria’s current tax administration system, especially with the migration to the newer digital tax platforms.
Here is the key thing to understand:
1. There are now two major tax layers in Nigeria
Federal taxes — handled by Federal Inland Revenue Service
This mainly covers:
Companies (corporate income tax)
VAT
Petroleum taxes
Large businesses
Some federal-level individual taxes
This is why the FIRS staff told you they mainly deal with corporate entities.
State taxes — handled by State Internal Revenue Services
Examples:
Rivers State Internal Revenue Service
Lagos State Internal Revenue Service
These agencies primarily handle:
PAYE (salary tax)
Personal Income Tax (PIT)
Informal sector taxes
Self-employed individual taxation
Under Nigerian law, individual personal income tax is mostly administered by the state where the person is resident, not necessarily where they work.
So even if:
you are unemployed,
self-employed online,
a student,
or not running a physical business,
you are still linked to a state tax authority based on your place of residence.
2. What happened with your Tax ID (TIN)
Last year, Nigeria introduced simplified TIN generation linked to:
NIN
BVN
CAC
phone number databases
So many people generated TINs online automatically without fully completing tax registration on the backend systems.
Now the government is consolidating records into:
TaxPro Max
During verification, the system may discover that:
your TIN exists,
but your taxpayer profile is incomplete,
inactive,
not migrated properly,
or not fully enrolled under a state tax authority.
That is why you are seeing:
“Visit your tax office and register on TaxPro Max.”
This does not necessarily mean your TIN is fake.
It usually means:
the TIN was generated,
but your taxpayer record was not fully activated or synchronized.
3. Is the “Unified Tax ID” supposed to prevent double taxation?
Yes — in theory.
Nigeria moved toward:
one unified taxpayer identity,
one TIN per person,
linked to NIN/BVN.
The objective is to:
avoid multiple TINs,
reduce duplicate taxation,
improve compliance tracking.
However, the administration is still split between:
FIRS,
state revenue services,
and different legacy databases.
So in practice:
one person can still encounter mismatched records,
duplicate registrations,
or incomplete migrations.
The system is improving but not fully seamless yet.
4. For someone not formally employed, what is the correct office?
Your state tax authority is still the proper place.
Since you are in Rivers State, the appropriate authority would generally be:
Rivers State Internal Revenue Service
Even if:
you are unemployed,
investing only,
freelancing,
trading online,
or simply doing KYC for investment purposes.
This is because personal tax residency is usually tied to:
residence/location,
not employer alone.
5. Why Coronation Registrars may want it
Coronation Registrars and other registrars increasingly request:
valid TIN,
NIN,
BVN,
and updated KYC
because of:
e-dividend compliance,
anti-money laundering regulations,
capital market verification standards.
So verifying the TIN before submission was a good step.
6. What you should do now
Option A — Visit or contact Rivers State tax office
Ask them to:
confirm your TIN,
activate/migrate it on TaxPro Max,
link it properly to your NIN.
Take:
NIN slip/card,
BVN,
phone number,
email,
any proof of address.
Option B — Try self-registration on TaxPro Max
Official platform:
taxpromax.firs.gov.ng
You may attempt:
“Sign Up”
Individual taxpayer registration
TIN retrieval/validation
But many individuals eventually still need manual state-level activation.
7. Important clarification about taxation
Having a TIN does NOT automatically mean:
you owe tax immediately,
or government will start billing you aggressively.
A TIN today is often simply:
an identity/compliance requirement,
similar to BVN or NIN for financial systems.
Many investment platforms now request it even from low-income or inactive investors.
8. One thing to avoid
Do not generate another fresh TIN unless instructed officially.
Because:
duplicate TINs create KYC problems,
dividend/payment mismatches,
and future compliance complications.
Your existing TIN should normally be corrected or migrated instead.