US Tax for Nigerian Founders Running US LLCs
There is no US-Nigeria tax treaty, so US-source dividends face the full 30% withholding with no reduction. A Nigerian resident owes no US federal income tax on a US LLC's business profits absent US effectively connected income, but Nigeria taxes them as worldwide income at rates up to 25% under the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 (effective 1 January 2026); relief runs through a unilateral foreign tax credit.
Approval-window and timing figures are based on founder reports tracked by Global Solo; regulatory figures follow the cited agency's published rules.
US tax for non-US-resident founders running US LLCs is shaped by three converging questions: does the US LLC have Effectively Connected Income (ECI), does the founder owe US tax personally on LLC profits, and how does the founder's home-country tax authority treat the LLC structure. For a non-US-person owner the US answer is usually narrow — no US income tax on foreign-earned business profits, with Form 5472 as the only filing; the expat-tax services below fit founders who are themselves US persons (citizens or green-card holders) living abroad. Home-country treatment requires a local CA / CPA familiar with the cross-border layer.
US Tax + Treaty options for Nigerian founders
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Nigeria cross-border compliance layer
The US side for a Nigeria-resident owner is the familiar non-resident position: an LLC run from Nigeria with no US office, employees, or dependent agent generally has no US trade or business and no effectively connected income, so the business profits bear no US federal income tax, while Form 5472 plus pro-forma Form 1120 remain due (USD 25,000 penalty, IRC Section 6038A). Because there is no US-Nigeria income tax treaty, any US-source FDAP income — US-company dividends, US-source interest — suffers the full statutory 30% withholding with no treaty reduction.
On the Nigeria side, the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 (effective 1 January 2026) taxes resident individuals on worldwide income and runs a graduated personal scale topping at 25% above NGN 50 million (the prior Personal Income Tax Act top band was 24%). A US LLC operated remotely is taxed by look-through on the owner's worldwide income as the profits arise, not only on repatriation. The 2025 Act introduced Nigeria's first Controlled Foreign Company regime, but its deemed-distribution charge is framed for foreign companies controlled by a Nigerian company rather than an individual — so a solo founder's LLC is generally reached through the worldwide-income charge, not a CFC inclusion, though the individual-versus-corporate scope of the new rule is not yet fully settled. With no treaty, double-tax relief depends on Nigeria's unilateral foreign tax credit (the lower of the foreign tax paid or the Nigerian tax on that income); in practice there is usually little US tax to credit, so the Nigerian charge stands. Separately, CBN foreign-exchange rules govern moving funds and do not change the income-tax characterisation.
**Sources cited above:** IRC Section 6038A (Form 5472); IRS treaty index (no US-Nigeria treaty); Nigeria Tax Act 2025 (effective 1 January 2026) — worldwide-income charge, graduated rates to 25%, CFC provision for corporate parents, unilateral foreign tax credit; Personal Income Tax Act (prior 24% top band). Last verified 2026-06-01.
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