Inland Revenue Department to observe Tax Day

Inland Revenue Department is going to celebrate the second national 'Tax Day' on November 16.

The celebration – that will also see some 150 taxpayers being rewarded unlike last year's 70 – is expected to help expand tax net and bring more taxpayers into the tax net, said the department's director general Tanka Mani Sharma, who is the coordinator of the tax day celebration.

The Tax Week will however be observed after the Constituent Assembly (CA) election, he said, adding that the wee-long tax fair has been delayed due to the CA election on November 19.

This year the tax fair will focus on increasing the number of rental tax payers.

In Kathmandu Valley, there are around 250,000 households, which should pay the rental tax but very few of them pay the tax. "The department needs to create awareness among the people and encourage them to pay tax," he said, adding that the government has targeted to mobilise Rs 2.31 billion in rental revenue in the current fiscal year.

Likewise, the department is also bringing some schemes to attract professionals to pay tax. "The tax authority has sent letters in the names of professionals to be registered with it and pay tax," Sharma added.

It is estimated that there are some 10,000 practicing lawyers but only 1,000 have permanent account numbers (PAN) and only 100 law firms are registered under the value added tax (VAT).

A total of 2,500 engineers have PAN, while some 7,600 doctors and 7,000 auditors have been registered in PAN by the end of last fiscal year, according to the department that claims that still more professionals like doctors, engineers, lawers, auditors, journalists and many more are not under the tax net. "By the end of mid-January 2014 – or by the end of second quarter of the current fiscal year – they have to come under the tax net," the department reminded, adding that some 15,817 new taxpayers have been added in the last fiscal year, when the department had planned to bring some 10,000.