New tax aides being raised

A new brigade of tax aides styled Tax Return Preparer (TRP) is being raised for enhancing return submissions and preventing evasions that forfeit many state services to the defaulters.
Officials said the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has decided to introduce the new provision in the Income Tax Ordinance to facilitate marginal taxpayers in preparing and filing tax returns.
The new provision may be introduced in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY), as they said the commoners cannot afford to take services of the existing tax aides.
TRP is a popular concept worldwide, including in the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), USA, to support taxpayers in preparing tax return under the authorization of revenue administration of the respective country.
However, they are different from tax professionals who have different types of expertise, skills and education. Representation rights, on behalf of taxpayers, before the revenue authority may differ between the tax professionals and TRP.
The TRPs would help those who are compelled to submit tax returns for having taxpayer- identification number (TIN), or for availing services, but are unable to pay high charges of tax professionals, the officials said.
Sources said the TRPs will also prepare tax return for the people who remained out of tax net in growth centres.
“The NBR is framing a format for the upcoming budget on how the TRPs would be licensed and what their working area would be to handle tax returns,” says one official.
A senior official has said the decision on TRP has been taken to increase the number of tax returns by facilitating taxpayers.
“Despite several efforts, the NBR could not raise the number of tax returns to the satisfactory level as many skirt the trouble of preparing tax returns,” he says. This year, only some 3.0 million taxpayers submitted their tax returns out of over 8.0 million holding taxpayer-identification number.
After the government made submission of proof of tax return mandatory from the current fiscal for availing 38 types of services, a vast majority of low-and marginal-income groups of people are compelled to file tax return despite not having any taxable income, he pointed out.
Officials said the list of services that fall under mandatory tax-return-submission criteria might be lengthened in the upcoming budget, to hook more people onto the tax net.
A lower-than-expected tax-GDP ratio in Bangladesh has been a topic of discussion in circles of analysts and international development financiers.
Currently, the NBR has given licences to around 10,000 Income Tax Professionals (ITP) who prepare tax returns on behalf of taxpayers and offer other legal supports to the taxpayers as their representatives.
Md Jahangir Alam, Executive Director of Golden Bangladesh, who is a renowned ITP, takes exception to the latest move as he thinks such provisions might create contradiction with the work of ITP.
“Currently, some 10,000 ITPs are supporting the taxpayers by preparing their tax returns and giving legal advices,” he says, adding that the NBR might increase the number of ITPs by giving more licences rather than creating a new brand of professionals as tax aides.

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