The National Board of Revenue on Thursday extended the deadline for submission of income tax returns by individual taxpayers by one more month to December 1 due mainly to poor response from the taxpayers in filing the returns within the time limit.
The NBR in its decision, however, said that the deadline had been extended following demand for more time from the different trade bodies and professional associations.
Earlier on September 30, the revenue board had extended the deadline by one month to October 31 because of low response from the taxpayers and demand from the trade bodies including the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
Officials of the revenue board said less than 50 per cent of the regular taxpayers or around 4 lakh people submitted their returns by the October 31 deadline.
In the last fiscal year, more than 9 lakh taxpayers submitted their returns.
According to the income tax ordinance, individual taxpayers are supposed to file their returns by September 30.
Citing the trade bodies’ demand, the NBR in a press release issued on Tuesday said that many taxpayers could not complete procedures for filing returns due to long holidays on the occasions of Eid-ul-Azha and Durga Puja in October.
Taxpayers also need more time to obtain online generated taxpayers identification numbers which are made mandatory for filing returns from this year, it said.
Considering all the issues, the revenue board has decided to extend the time for filing returns to December 1, it said.
-With New Age input
