The government is all prepared to introduce an exit policy for taxpayers for the first time, including expatriates, locked in TIN forever once taken.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is likely to incorporate a provision of de-registration into the law for the taxpayers who are searching ways to exit from the tax net for various reasons.
Under the provision, to be placed with the new budget before Parliament on June 1, 2023, taxpayers will be able to apply for discontinuation of their taxpayer identification number (TIN) to the tax authority by explaining valid reasons.
Currently, people who obtain TIN once get locked -- they cannot stop or discontinue the registration even after death.
According to sources, the TIN- holders could discontinue their registration making the TIN dormant during FY24.
They would be able to resume the TIN again by submitting an application to the tax department.
Currently, there are 8.6 million TIN-holders under the NBR.
Of them, only around 3.2 million submit tax returns.
Officials said the wide gap between TIN-holders and return submissions would be minimized after introduction of de-registration provision.
They said the number of actual taxpayers who are paying taxes regularly would be known after introduction of the provision.
The ICT wing of the NBR would make the TIN dormant on its server after getting instruction from the tax offices concerned, they said.
It was a longstanding demand from both the taxpayers and taxmen to introduce the de-registration provision in tax law.
Under the Company Act, a company could wind up its operations following some procedures.
But, tax registration of the company remained active for years due to absence of such provision in the tax law.
Officials said in the upcoming financial year, the fiscal measures would be devised to encourage savings in the commercial banks through DPS to increase liquidity flow into banks.
From the upcoming fiscal year, DPS- holders would get tax concessions worth Tk10,000 per month or Tk120,000 annually.
Currently it is Tk5,000 per month or up to Tk60,000 annually.