What the TIN is
The TIN is the number National Revenue Authority (NRA) assigns to a taxpayer in Sierra Leone. It follows you across every tax you deal with: GST, income tax and withholding. Businesses that pay you will ask for it before they release payment, because they report their suppliers to National Revenue Authority (NRA) by this number.
Who needs one
Anyone who derives income in Sierra Leone that is potentially liable to tax must apply for a Taxpayer Identification Number within 15 days of starting the activity that creates the liability (Revenue Administration Act 2017, s.21). That covers employees, sole proprietors, partners, companies, NGOs, government ministries and public corporations. Each separate legal entity needs its own TIN, and nobody may hold two. An individual's TIN is issued for life and cannot be given up. You will also be asked for it outside the NRA: the Act's First Schedule requires a TIN to register a business or incorporate a company at the Office of the Administrator and Registrar-General, to open a bank account, to register or transfer a vehicle, to register title to land, to get a trading licence from a city or local council, to pay NASSIT contributions, to get an electricity, water or gas connection, to tender to the National Public Procurement Authority, and to be paid by the Government.
How to register, step by step
- Open itas.nra.gov.sl (the ITAS link under Online Services on nra.gov.sl), click 'Applicant', enter an email address and password, then confirm the email and click registration.
- Complete the registration details on the form.
- Attach your National Identification Number if you are an individual, or your Administrator and Registrar-General business registration or incorporation documents if you are a company or other business.
- Submit. ITAS issues an Application Reference Number immediately; the NRA vets and approves the application within 24 hours and emails you the TIN certificate.
- On paper instead: collect the 'Taxpayer Identification Number — Individuals and Sole Proprietorships' form (employees fill Sections A and C only, sole proprietors A, B and C) or the 'Taxpayer Identification Number — Business Registration Form' for a company, partnership, NGO or ministry, from any NRA office; attach photocopies of the registration certificate and your ID, bring the originals for inspection, and hand the form back to the office you got it from. The TIN help desk is at the Domestic Tax Department headquarters, 11-13 ECOWAS Street, Freetown.
How to find or check a TIN
Verification is on a different NRA system from filing: the NRA Single Taxpayer Portal at portal.nra.gov.sl/verify. It has three public checks — Verify Individual TIN (enter the TIN), Verify Business TIN (TIN plus business name) and Verify Tax Clearance Certificate (certificate number). The NRA publishes no procedure for recovering a lost TIN. Your TIN is on the TIN certificate the NRA served on you, and an individual's number is permanent and never reissued, so ask the Domestic Tax Department help desk at 11-13 ECOWAS Street, Freetown to look it up rather than applying again — the Revenue Administration Act forbids holding a second TIN.
Documents, cost and how long it takes
An individual or sole proprietor who is a Sierra Leonean citizen supplies a National Identification Number, plus a passport if they hold one; a non-national supplies a passport and, on the NRA form, the residence permit number. A business supplies the registration number shown on its Administrator and Registrar-General certificate, and the application form is signed by a director, the company secretary or, for a partnership, a partner. Attach photocopies of the registration certificate and ID and bring the originals for inspection. The NRA publishes no fee for a TIN. Once issued you receive a certificate recording the number; keep it, because you quote the TIN in all dealings with the NRA and on tax returns. A business that stops trading and restarts later gets the same TIN back.