Business legal calendar

A compliance rhythm, not a list of dates

Most compliance failures are timing failures: an obligation that had no owner and no cadence. This calendar names what recurs, what starts the clock and what to have ready — so you can build it into your own year.

Why there are no dates here

Filing dates, thresholds and fees change, and they differ by entity, activity and location. Publishing them without a maintained source and a review process would be worse than publishing nothing — a date that is wrong is more dangerous than a date you knew you had to check. So each entry names its cadence and the event that starts the clock, and you confirm the actual date with the relevant authority.

Every pay run

1 recurring obligation

Each pay run

Payroll deductions and remittances

Pay-as-you-earn deductions, and pension and employee-compensation contributions where they apply, follow each pay run.

What starts the clock: Each pay run
Timing: Every pay period, on the schedule set by the relevant authority. Confirm current dates with the tax authority and scheme administrators.

What to prepare

Payroll register for the period, with each deduction shown.
Payslips issued to every employee.
Evidence of remittance, filed with the payroll records.

Employment & payroll

Quarterly

2 recurring obligations

Quarterly

Contract renewal and notice review

Auto-renewals and notice windows are missed because nobody owns them, not because they are hard to meet.

What starts the clock: Renewal and notice windows in your agreements
Timing: Quarterly, against the dates in your own contracts. The only reliable source for these is the agreements themselves.

What to prepare

A register of agreements with their renewal and notice dates.
The decision on each: renew, renegotiate or exit.
Notice served in the form the contract requires.

Contracts

Quarterly

Board and governance cycle

Decisions taken as decisions, minuted and retained, are what make governance evidenceable later.

What starts the clock: Your governance calendar
Timing: Quarterly for most companies, alongside any meeting your constitution requires.

What to prepare

An agenda, and papers circulated in advance.
Declarations of interest for anything conflicted.
Minutes written up and retained with the company records.

Corporate governance

Annually

5 recurring obligations

Annual

Annual returns and company filings

Companies and registered entities are expected to file annual returns and keep registered particulars current.

What starts the clock: Your company's annual return cycle under CAMA 2020
Timing: Once a year, on the cycle that applies to your entity. Confirm your own due date with the Corporate Affairs Commission.

What to prepare

Current details of directors, shareholders and the registered address.
Any changes made during the year that were not filed at the time.
The statutory registers, updated to match.

Business structure & registration

Annual

Tax returns and bookkeeping close

Preparing a return is straightforward when the books were kept as the year went along, and painful when they were not.

What starts the clock: Your accounting year end
Timing: Annually, following your financial year end, with periodic filings in between. Confirm the filing calendar that applies to you with the tax authority.

What to prepare

Complete books for the period, reconciled to the bank.
Invoices, receipts and remittance evidence.
A qualified tax professional engaged before, not after, the deadline.

Tax awareness

Annual

Data protection review

Re-walk your data inventory: what you hold, why, where it sits, who can reach it, and what should now be deleted.

What starts the clock: A fixed month you choose and keep
Timing: At least annually, and whenever you add a system, a tool or a new kind of data. Confirm any filing or audit duty with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission.

What to prepare

The current data inventory and retention schedule.
A list of processors and the terms you hold with them.
Access lists, with leavers removed.

Data protection

Annual

Insurance review

Cover bought for the business you were is rarely right for the business you have become.

What starts the clock: Your policy renewal
Timing: At each renewal, and whenever the business changes what it does.

What to prepare

A current description of activities, premises, people and assets.
Insurance requirements from your contracts.
The exclusions on your existing policies, read properly.

Insurance & risk

Annual

Employment policy and terms review

Check that written terms, the disciplinary procedure and the handbook still describe how the business actually runs.

What starts the clock: A fixed month you choose and keep
Timing: Annually, and whenever you change how people are engaged or paid.

What to prepare

Signed terms on file for everyone currently working in the business.
The disciplinary and grievance procedure as last applied.
Any role that has changed enough to need new terms.

Employment & payroll

When the event happens

1 recurring obligation

Event-driven

Licence and permit renewals

A lapsed permit can stop an activity entirely, and is usually harder to restore than to renew.

What starts the clock: The expiry date on each permit you hold
Timing: As each authorisation falls due. Dates vary by regulator and by activity - confirm each one with the issuing body.

What to prepare

A register of every permit, its expiry and a named owner.
Renewal requirements checked with the regulator ahead of time.
Evidence of continuing conditions, where the authorisation imposes them.

Licensing & industry regulation

Continuous

1 recurring obligation

Ongoing

Records and retention housekeeping

Delete what has reached the end of its retention period, and confirm the records you must keep are actually recoverable.

What starts the clock: Your retention schedule
Timing: Continuous, with a scheduled review at least once a year.

What to prepare

The retention schedule, and what has now aged out.
A restore test from backup - not just a backup report.
Confirmation that the business, not an individual, controls each account.

Record keeping