NBR extends time for corporate tax return filling
Staff Reporter :
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has extended the time for submission of corporate tax returns for the tax year 2022-23 until June 15 due to poor response so far.
NBR sources said only around 26,000 were submitted so far, the number of the registered corporate taxpayers is more than two lakh. Last year, the NBR received around 30,000 returns in the whole year.
As of December, 2022, there were 278,277 companies, societies and partnership firms registered with the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC). Of them, 3,650 are public limited companies and 201,816 are private limited companies. Besides, there are 1,041 liaison offices of foreign companies, 54,772 partnership firms, 1,169 trade organisations, 15,629 societies, and 200 OPCs.
The original deadline for submission of the return expired on January 15, 2022.
As per Income Tax Ordinance-1984, corporate taxpayers can extend the time until May 15, 2022 subject to approval by the taxmen. However, they have to pay an interest, 2.0 per cent per month on the amount of payable tax, after expiry of the January 15 deadline.
A senior tax official said the penalty would be applicable for the extended period too.
In case of failure in payment of tax and submission of returns within the extended time frame, taxmen can take punitive action against the defaulters.
The tax official said the introduction of the document verification system (DVS) would help bring discipline in corporate tax return submission this year.
“The NBR has extended the time to facilitate companies to correct their financial statements and maintain one book of accounts with the help of document verification system (DVS),” the tax official said.
The DVS, developed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB), would ensure transparency in the financial reporting system. The CAs said the process of auditing the financial statements slowed as many corporate taxpayers were unwilling to disclose their previously undisclosed income that they showed through multiple books of accounts.
