There is hardly any scope for conflict of interest between the income-tax practitioners and tax-return preparers (TRPs) as the latter are not authorised representatives of the taxpayers, taxmen said.
The TRPs or tax agents are not entitled to attend hearings before the taxmen. They can only prepare and submit tax returns on behalf of the taxpayers by using the online portal (etaxnbr.gov.bd) of the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
"The TRPs would prepare and submit returns only for new taxpayers and get a commission on the amount of paid taxes from the government," said MM Fazlul Haque Arif, Director General of (BCS) Tax Academy.
The tax academy would recruit the TRPs based on the Tax Aptitude and Accounting Test (TAAT), he added.
To help TRP aspirants take preparation, the NBR issued an instruction with details and guidelines of TRP on Tuesday.
Mr Arif said the NBR would appoint some accounting firms through which the TRPs would be able to work. "We are preparing to start recruitment within the shortest possible time," he added.
Though the return submission deadline for the individual taxpayers is scheduled to expire on November 30, the TRPs would be able to help the new taxpayers as the deadline for them is June 30 next year, taxmen said.
The NBR has introduced the new concept of TRP in the budget for the current fiscal year (FY) in a bid to expand tax net and bring new taxpayers under tax net with the help of those agents.
Online tax return submission would get popular through the involvement of the TRPs, the tax officials said.
The taxpayers would not have to pay any charges to the TRPs as they will get the commissions from the NBR based on the paid taxes of the taxpayers.
The NBR would issue a Unique Identification Number (UIN) to the selected TRPs.
However, tax lawyers could obtain TRP certificates by showing their relevant professional documents only, without appearing for any examination. The NBR would offer the commissions to the TRP for the first five consecutive years. After that, they would not get any incentives for tax return preparation.
For the first three consecutive years, the TRPs would get 10 per cent commission on the minimum tax amount paid by the taxpayer. For the next Tk 15,000, they would get 2.0 per cent more, while an additional 1.0 per cent for next Tk 50,000 and 0.5 per cent for the rest.
The amount of commission would be reduced in the fourth and fifth year. The TRPs would get 5.0 per cent commission on minimum taxes, while 1.0 per cent, 0.5 per cent and 0.25 per cent for the next Tk 15,000, Tk 50,000 and rest of the amount respectively.
Also, the supporting firms or companies would also get 10 per cent of the commissions from the receivable amount of the TRPs.
However, the TRPs would not be entitled to any commission in case of expiry of the return submission deadline.
The NBR would be able to cancel the TRP certificates in case of any irregularities. The TRPs or its supporting firms might face penal action, even criminal case, in case of disclosure of taxpayers' private information in the tax returns.
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