Advance income tax paid during import to be credited automatically to e-return
The move is expected to significantly reduce hassles that importers have faced for years in claiming tax credits on advance income tax paid at the import stage
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has launched an automated system that allows advance income tax paid at the import stage to be directly credited to taxpayers' e-returns, aiming to ease long-standing difficulties faced by importers.
With effect from yesterday (18 January), the NBR has completed and activated an effective system integration between its e-return platform and ASYCUDA World. As a result, income tax paid by taxpayers during the import process will now be automatically reflected as a credit in their electronic income tax returns.
The move is expected to significantly reduce hassles that importers have faced for years in claiming tax credits on advance income tax paid at the import stage, reads an NBR press release issued yesterday. It will also make e-return filing easier for import-based businesses.
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Under the new system, when an importer enters business income information in the e-return, details of advance income tax paid against each bill of entry for the relevant assessment year will be automatically populated on a bill-of-entry basis. The tax paid at the import stage will then be adjusted against the taxpayer's total income tax liability, and the payable amount will be calculated accordingly within the system.
The NBR also shared updated figures on the progress of the online tax return initiative. Since the official launch of online e-return filing for the 2025-26 tax year on 4 August 2025 by Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, more than 46 lakh taxpayers have registered on the e-return system, while nearly 33 lakh have already submitted their returns.
Notably, the NBR said many taxpayers for whom e-return submission is not mandatory are also choosing to file their returns online. For the first time, non-resident Bangladeshis are also able to register and submit their income tax returns through the system. So far, around 4,000 expatriate Bangladeshis have filed their income tax returns for the 2025–26 tax year online.
According to the NBR, no documents or supporting papers are required to be uploaded when submitting an online e-return. The authority said it is continuing all efforts to ensure that individual taxpayers can pay income tax and submit returns easily from home.
The NBR has urged all individual taxpayers to submit their income tax returns online using the e-return system by 31 January 2026.
