Microsoft, following the footsteps of Google, Facebook and Amazon, on Thursday registered for value added tax (VAT) with the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
Under the Value Added Tax and Supplementary Duty Act 2012, Microsoft will be paying VAT at a rate of 15% on the sale of goods, advertisements and services.
The Bangladesh government took the initiative of bringing foreign companies under the registration and VAT process in 2019, as tech giants had been making around Tk3,000 crore from Bangladesh annually.
According to an NBR official, Microsoft has been paying taxes on their business in Bangladesh that has been deducted from businesses availing its products and services in contrast to paying it through banks, inducing uncertainties on the amount of revenue staying in and going out of the country.
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With Microsoft registering its Microsoft Regional Sales Pte Ltd office in Singapore with the Dhaka South VAT zone, the foreign company can now submit returns on the total turnover at the end of each year, enabling the government to monitor the US tech giant.
Podder & Associates will work as the local VAT agent for Microsoft.
Earlier, Facebook had registered for VAT on June 13, while Amazon and Google had done the same in May. Although tech giants had expressed the willingness to register with the NBR as early as 2019, several issues had delayed the process.