Verify income resources of fish, poultry farming
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has asked the tax authority to devise methods to examine the authenticity of income sources displayed by many taxpayers within their returns, including poultry and fish farming.
The anti-graft watchdog's recommendation came after it found during enquiry that many people cannot show evidence to get their incomes they claimed to have made from stocking business, general trading and poultry, dairy and fish farming.
"It creates scope to legalise illegally-earned funds if incomes that are shown found in such heads happen to be accepted found in a blanket manner," said Secretary to the ACC Md Anwar Hossain Howlader found in a letter to the National Plank of Income (NBR) sent early previous month.
The ACC said it thinks it had been essential to scrutinise incomes demonstrated against these sources in a reasonable way before accepting those to be legally earned.
The ACC's suggestion comes against the setting of the NBR offering reduced tax benefits for poultry, cattle, dairy and fish farming, feed and seed production, horticulture, sericulture, mushroom cultivation and floriculture since 2015.
The tax authority scrapped the benefit for fish farming in September 2014 after it found that a portion of dishonest taxpayers is allegedly shifting income from different sources to fisheries to evade tax.
The tax privilege was reinstated the next year amid lobbying from different quarters.
At present, incomes as high as Tk 10 lakh from fishery hatchery and seafood farming is tax-free.
Only 5 % tax is payable on the next Tk 10 lakh in income.
On gross annual incomes of over Tk 20 lakh, only 10 per cent is payable as tax, based on the NBR.
In case of poultry farming, no tax does apply for incomes of up to Tk 20 lakh.
And 10 % taxes is payable on incomes of above Tk 30 lakh from poultry farming, whereas the best rate of taxes for an individual is 25 per cent.
On Mon, at a views-exchange conference on the launching of its Annual Survey 2019, ACC Chairman Iqbal Mahmood said the NBR concerns taxes clearance certificates on cash flow proven as earned from diverse kinds of businesses including seafood farming and stocking.
"But during the enquiry, we often find very little existence of such organization," he explained, adding that the NBR should examine these when tax returns were filed.
"It's the duty of the NBR to check on the wealth of a good person before issuing a good certificate. But while working with cases on against the law wealth, we've seen they are not done correctly," he said.
"Taking good thing about whitening black cash or legalising bribe isn't acceptable," said Mahmood.
Iqbal suggested simplifying the tax go back form and enabling it to be wholly submitted on-line.
