Marginal taxpayers worried over mandatory return submission

Bank depositors, mainly marginal taxpayers, are worried over a new budget proposal to make the submission of tax returns mandatory for most of the TIN-holders.

A number of housewives and senior citizens have obtained TIN or taxpayers identification number to avoid extra 5.0 per cent tax on interest income of bank deposits.

Tax on interest income of bank deposits is 10 per cent for TIN-holders while 15 per cent for those having no TINs.

Many depositors do not have taxable income but as per proposed fiscal measures for the upcoming fiscal year, they would have to submit tax returns on mandatory basis for having TINs.

However, people who do not have taxable income but want to sell land or obtain credit card will be exempted from mandatory submission of tax returns despite having TINs.

A senior official of the income tax wing said they have made return submission easy by introducing a one-page tax return for marginal taxpayers.

"People who have gross income below Tk 0.4 million a year and do not own motor car and have any house properties in city corporation area will be able to submit the one-page tax return," he said.

Taxpayers will be able to submit their returns online by clicking into only two fields, he added.

A taxpayer will be able to pay his/her tax through mobile financial services too, the official said.

For submission of online tax returns, the government has proposed offering Tk 2,000 tax rebate to an individual taxpayer.

Rowshon Akter Mili, a housewife, said the process of submission of tax returns seems complicated to her.

She said some categories of taxpayers includinghousewives and senior citizens who do not have taxable income should be exempted from the mandatory return submission.

Currently, the number of TIN-holders is 4.6 million while only 2.2 million submit tax returns.

People have to obtain TINs for availing different types of services from both public and private entities despite having no taxable income.

Officials said such measures will help increase the number of tax returns in the upcoming fiscal year.

Another taxpayer said all the credit cardholders have taxable income, so submission of returns should be made mandatory for them.

However, MPO-listed educational institutions, public universities, provident fund and businesses which have permanent establishments in Bangladesh are exempted from submitting tax returns.