Taxation- in Bangladesh context

Taxation: 
Taxation is one of the major sources of public revenue to meet a country's revenue and development expenditures with a view to accomplishing some economic and social objectives, such as redistribution of income, price stabilization and discouraging harmful consumption. It supplements other sources of public finance such as issuance of currency notes and coins, charging for public goods and services and borrowings. The term “Tax” has been derived from the French word “Taxe” and etymologically, the Latin word “Taxare” is related to the term 'tax', which means 'to charge'. Tax is 'a contribution exacted by the state'. It is a non-penal but compulsory and unrequited transfer of resources from the private to the public sector, levied based on predetermined criteria.

Among direct taxes, income tax is one of the main sources of revenue. In Bangladesh Income tax is imposed on the basis of ability to pay. The more a taxpayer earns the more he should pay - is the basic principle of charging income tax. It aims at ensuring equity and social justice.

All individuals and companies in the country need to pay income tax if their annual income excess certain limit determined by the Government. There are some conditions for paying Income Tax which are controlled by Tax Laws and Amendments in Bangladesh.

Income Tax Return is a structured form where the Tax Payer mentions his/her income and expenditure, resources and credit information to submit them to the Income Tax Office. The form is different for the individual and companies. Tax payers need the Tax Identification Number as well as some endorsed documents (the description of salary, security money, housing property, business, partnership basis income, profit on capital, income tax pay order etc.) to submit the Tax Return Form. All individual or company can have their Taxpayers Identification Number from respective income tax office. Each class of tax payer has to submit their return form to the selected income tax circle.

Taxation is not only a major means of public finance but also it plays a crucial role in ensuring a social and economic justice. The incidence of direct taxes Viz. Income-Tax, gift-tax cannot be shifted on others and it has to be borne by the person on whom it is levied. My efforts today will be to enlighten the participants of this course on the different aspects of the direct taxes. We shall confine ourselves to the contents only without going into the details of relevant sections of the laws which can be had from the IT. Ordinance, 1984 as amended from time to time through annual Finance Act.

Income-Tax:

Income Tax is a dynamic but mostly a practical subject. It is indeed a difficult task to acquire within this short time at least a working knowledge of income tax especially when the laws of it originate from more than one source, such as:

ü  Income-Tax Ordinance, 1984 as amended from time to time through annual Finance Act - Part I

ü  Income-Tax manual - Part II

ü  Supplementary Regulatory Order (SRO), Circulars, Notifications etc.

ü  Precedents of decided Case laws.