Deadline extension for tax matters on the cards
The government is likely to give relief to taxpayers from penalties for their inability to adhere to deadlines during the shutdown, said finance ministry officials.
Officials will work to table a proposal to the government higher-ups to empower the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to relax rules related to issues that have time bar.
For example, employers need to submit statements of tax filing by their employers within April 30 each year to avoid penalty. But this season, despite the willingness to take action, many firms cannot do so for the shutdown enforced since March 26 to flatten the curve on coronavirus.
Besides, firms must deposit the tax deducted at way to obtain goods and services of the current month within the first half of the next month.
Gleam time-related obligation regarding disposal of tax-related appeals in today's rules, said officials and firms.
None of these can be carried out on time for the shutdown.
Under the circumstance, the finance ministry plans to increase the deadline of time-bound issues equal to the period of lockdown, said officials.
"The government is considering these matters positively," said a senior official of the NBR wanting to remain unmanned.
Meanwhile, the income board is also working to extend the deadline about the filing of value-added tax (VAT) returns.
Last month, companies faced difficulties in handing in the VAT returns because they had to open their offices to get ready transaction statement after the NBR suddenly announced that its field offices will be available to receive returns of transactions in March.
Yet, the NBR got 31,000 returns last month, which is half of the number of returns it got the previous month, said officials.
"VAT return submission put us in a whole lot of trouble last month. Rules linked to VAT return submission ought to be relaxed," said a senior official of a multinational company asking not to be named.
As per rules, businesses need to submit information on transactions of the prior month and deposit VAT paid by the finish consumers to the state coffer within 15 days of the following month.
Firms need to pay a Tk 10,000 penalty for failure to submit VAT returns within the deadline.
They can also seek time for delayed furnishing of return however they need to pay 2 % simple interest monthly for delayed submission, according to rules.
On the main one hand, the penalty and interest burden for delayed submission are increasing the businesses' operational costs of these days of shutdown.
And alternatively, there was no way for them to connect with the VAT field offices seeking additional time because they were also closed according to the government directive.
And when confronted with rising concerns and difficulties faced by businesses, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal last month said the deadline for returns submission would be extended.
But the extension is still not official. "We are still working on it," said a senior official of VAT asking not to be named as he's not authorised to consult with the media.
