Although the fiscal year has begun, taxpayers’ return filing has not yet started. In the outgoing fiscal year, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) made online return filing mandatory for individual taxpayers except for five categories. From the current fiscal year, corporate entities as well as individual taxpayers are due to begin filing returns online. Launching online corporate return filing for the first time may take a few months. However, online return filing for individual taxpayers may begin around the last week of this July, according to NBR sources.
An NBR official said, on condition of anonymity, that launching online return filing for individual-category taxpayers was being considered seriously. In particular, since an incentive for early return filing has been introduced this year, the board wants to start it as soon as possible. With all preparations complete, return filing may begin in the last week of July.
The chief solution officer (CSO) of Sinosis IT, the software service provider for the online return-filing system, said the software also has to be upgraded in line with the changes made to the income-tax law. It will be handed over to the NBR, with the upgrade, by 20 July, after which the NBR will review it.
Asked about corporate returns, he said the NBR was providing the necessary requirements and software development would be done accordingly. As it was a new development, it would take some time. Asked when it would be completed, he said nothing could be said clearly about the timing yet, but it could take two to three months.
Meanwhile, from the current tax year, the NBR is working with Bangladesh Bank and other banks so that taxpayers can automatically add bank information to their online returns. Once implemented, a taxpayer will not have to enter bank information in the return separately. However, NBR officials said this would not be made mandatory.
They said a taxpayer who voluntarily wanted to give bank information in the return could do so, and one who did not could enter it manually. A taxpayer who wanted to give information for a few bank accounts, rather than automatically for all, could also do so. However, taxpayers who chose not to give information automatically would be at audit risk.
Those concerned said four pieces of bank information have to be stated in the return: the account balance as of 30 June 2026, income from interest, tax deducted at source on interest income, and amounts deducted as service charges.
According to NBR sources, the NBR currently has application programming interfaces (APIs) with the Directorate of National Savings and the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA). As a result, if a taxpayer has bought savings certificates or owns a vehicle, that information is added to the return automatically. Setting up APIs with other institutions and agencies in future is being considered seriously.
An NBR official of first-secretary rank said that if information on all kinds of financial transactions could be added to returns automatically, tax evasion would fall and the government’s revenue collection would rise.
For the current tax year, the NBR has divided the entire tax year into four parts for income-tax return filing by individual taxpayers and Hindu undivided families. Under the new provision, an individual taxpayer who files the return for the 2025-26 income year between 1 July and 30 September of the current tax year will get a tax rebate — 5 percent of the payable tax or Tk 25,000, whichever is lower.
Individual taxpayers who file between 1 October and 31 December will be treated as regular taxpayers; they will get no rebate but will also pay no penalty. Taxpayers who file between 1 January and 31 March, however, will have to pay a penalty of 2 percent of the payable tax or Tk 3,000, whichever is higher.
Finally, those filing between 1 April and 30 June will have to pay 5 percent of the payable tax or Tk 5,000, whichever is higher. Penalty provisions for individual-category taxpayers who failed to file on time existed before too — a Tk 1,000 charge for the delay plus Tk 50 per day.
According to NBR sources, more than 40 lakh taxpayers filed returns online in the outgoing fiscal year. A large share of online filers submitted zero returns — that is, they filed but paid no tax, showing their income below the tax-free limit. In the past tax year the tax-free income limit was Tk 3.5 lakh; in the current tax year it has been raised by Tk 50,000 to Tk 4 lakh.
The NBR has made online income-tax return filing mandatory for all individual-category taxpayers except senior taxpayers aged 65 or above, physically incapable or special-needs taxpayers, Bangladeshi taxpayers living abroad, legal representatives of deceased taxpayers, and foreign nationals working in Bangladesh.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report