Online tax return submission gets poor response
Thursday, 21 April 2011
Doulot Akter Mala
The online tax return system for income taxpayers has failed to attract people in the last two years as they found the facility incomplete without proper coordination between Bangladesh Bank (BB), commercial banks and the revenue board, officials have said. The National Board of Revenue (NBR) launched the online tax return system in July 2009, for large taxpayers -- both individual and corporate. But the system has failed to work properly without e-payment system. The board has found only 31 companies and five individuals have submitted tax returns through online out of 281 companies and nearly 1000 individuals under Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) of the income tax wing, according to a recent data compiled by the unit. LTU officials said they have received complaints from different local companies who were facing difficulties in availing the system. They said some multinational and large companies availed of the facility but they also submitted hard copies of different documents including audit reports. "Taxpayers have to submit different documents and audit reports with the tax return which is complicated in the existing system with low bandwidth," he said. The online tax return system was introduced with an aim to simplify tax return submission, but taxpayers found the system complicated as they could not pay tax online, he added. A tax practitioner, preferring anonymity, said he filed only one tax return file of assesses out of thousands. "Most of the taxpayers have found the system cumbersome as they have to spend a long time to attach relevant documents due to poor bandwidth of the online system," he said. Digital signature is also important for accepting the online tax returns to avoid any legal disputes, he added. The government will soon formulate a digital signature act to give legal basis to all of the documents filed online, he said. Another tax official said some of the taxpayers, who intend to hide information, do not want to submit online tax returns to avoid the transparent and recorded system. The LTU officials said the system should be improved by incorporating relevant facilities to implement it properly. "We need sufficient fund support from the government to improve the system," said a senior LTU official. Taxpayers have to attach several documents to the returns but the existing system allows only 10 to 20 pages of supporting papers, he said. The NBR needs fund support to update the software as per requirement of the taxpayers, he said. A senior revenue board official said the successful implementation of online system would need interconnection with the treasury and all scheduled banks. Without online payment system, the facility would not give any positive result, he said. The existing rule of attachment of a large volume of documents is also complicated leading to failure of the online tax return system, he said. Citing examples of the neigbouring countries, the official said a tax return form should contain all the information necessary for assessment. "The rules of attachment of huge documents with the returns should be withdrawn. Attachment of several documents to the audit report is not possible under the digital tax payment and return system," he added. The NBR has already introduced online tax return submission system for physicians and lawyers in posh areas like Gulshan and Banani, and banks and financial institutions. The board has a plan to introduce the system in phases for all taxpayers.
The online tax return system for income taxpayers has failed to attract people in the last two years as they found the facility incomplete without proper coordination between Bangladesh Bank (BB), commercial banks and the revenue board, officials have said. The National Board of Revenue (NBR) launched the online tax return system in July 2009, for large taxpayers -- both individual and corporate. But the system has failed to work properly without e-payment system. The board has found only 31 companies and five individuals have submitted tax returns through online out of 281 companies and nearly 1000 individuals under Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) of the income tax wing, according to a recent data compiled by the unit. LTU officials said they have received complaints from different local companies who were facing difficulties in availing the system. They said some multinational and large companies availed of the facility but they also submitted hard copies of different documents including audit reports. "Taxpayers have to submit different documents and audit reports with the tax return which is complicated in the existing system with low bandwidth," he said. The online tax return system was introduced with an aim to simplify tax return submission, but taxpayers found the system complicated as they could not pay tax online, he added. A tax practitioner, preferring anonymity, said he filed only one tax return file of assesses out of thousands. "Most of the taxpayers have found the system cumbersome as they have to spend a long time to attach relevant documents due to poor bandwidth of the online system," he said. Digital signature is also important for accepting the online tax returns to avoid any legal disputes, he added. The government will soon formulate a digital signature act to give legal basis to all of the documents filed online, he said. Another tax official said some of the taxpayers, who intend to hide information, do not want to submit online tax returns to avoid the transparent and recorded system. The LTU officials said the system should be improved by incorporating relevant facilities to implement it properly. "We need sufficient fund support from the government to improve the system," said a senior LTU official. Taxpayers have to attach several documents to the returns but the existing system allows only 10 to 20 pages of supporting papers, he said. The NBR needs fund support to update the software as per requirement of the taxpayers, he said. A senior revenue board official said the successful implementation of online system would need interconnection with the treasury and all scheduled banks. Without online payment system, the facility would not give any positive result, he said. The existing rule of attachment of a large volume of documents is also complicated leading to failure of the online tax return system, he said. Citing examples of the neigbouring countries, the official said a tax return form should contain all the information necessary for assessment. "The rules of attachment of huge documents with the returns should be withdrawn. Attachment of several documents to the audit report is not possible under the digital tax payment and return system," he added. The NBR has already introduced online tax return submission system for physicians and lawyers in posh areas like Gulshan and Banani, and banks and financial institutions. The board has a plan to introduce the system in phases for all taxpayers.