Tax Service Month kicks off to facilitate taxpayers submitting returns

Tax Service Month has kicked off to facilitate taxpayers submitting their returns across the country, instead of an income tax fair like previous years.

Taxpayers will get the service at 649 tax circle offices under 31 tax zones of the country throughout November.

At the same time, other services will also be available, including getting an electronic tax identification number (e-TIN).

"We will create an environment of income tax fair at the tax offices so that taxpayers can smoothly submit their returns," said Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem, chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR), while inaugurating the service month at its headquarters in the capital on Tuesday.

He said the services of e-return and the automated challan system (A-Challan) will also remain available.

The NBR chairman further said from 1-14 November, taxpayers at the offices concerned will be provided with the service by setting up booths and help desks at the capital's Officers' Club and Bangladesh Secretariat.

By setting up separate booths, the revenue authorities will make the service available at the Bangladesh Planning Commission premises for four days from 20 November and at Dhaka Cantonment from 8-9 November.

Apart from this, the NBR will also launch a month-long campaign to raise awareness about income tax.

Tax Fair had been organised since 2010 to collect returns from taxpayers and was gaining popularity day by day. As a result, almost one-third of taxpayers used to submit their returns at the fair to avoid hassles and harassment at tax offices. But it was cancelled following the Covid outbreak in 2020. After that, it was not launched again.

Every year 30th of November is observed as Tax Day and that day is the last day for the submission of tax returns. After that, anyone seeking to submit tax returns will have to pay interest at 2% of the total tax for each month of delay.

In other words, taxpayers must submit their returns by 30 November to avoid interest or penalties.

Due to several steps taken by the NBR in the current financial year, the amount of tax return submissions is expected to increase considerably.

Tax return submission has been made mandatory for all TIN holders from this year. Apart from this, for 38 types of services, proof of return submission has to be shown, otherwise, the institution responsible for checking the proof will be fined.

Currently, the number of e-TIN holders in the country is around 80 lakh – of which about 25 lakh submitted returns last year. The tax authorities believe that this number is likely to increase to 40 lakh this year.