Salaried e-Return Bangladesh: Step-by-Step Filing Guide to Avoid Costly Mistakes (AY 2026-27)

Filing your salaried e-return in Bangladesh accurately isn’t just a mandatory requirement—it is the smartest way to maximize your tax benefits and savings.

Under the Finance Act 2026, taxpayers have a valuable opportunity to reduce their tax burden through a 5% early-filing incentive, capped at Tk 25,000, by submitting their returns between July 1 and September 30, 2026.

Filing later isn’t just a missed discount, either — the new system runs penalties on a sliding scale through the year: no incentive or penalty for October–December filers, a 2% (or minimum Tk 3,000) penalty for January–March filers, and a 5% (or minimum Tk 5,000) penalty for April–June filers. In other words, every month you delay past September has a real cost attached to it.

In this article, I will walk you through a practical, step-by-step guide to preparing and filing your own return using the NBR e-Return portal.

Let’s get started.

Registration & Setup: Navigating the NBR e-Return Portal

To register on NBR e-tax return portal, enter your 12-digit e-TIN and biometric NID-linked mobile SIM. Verify via OTP, set a password, and log in (reset anytime using “Forgot Password”).

Initial Configuration

Assessment Setup: Select Income Year 2025–26, Assessment Year 2026–27, and check Resident status. Mark “Yes” only if you have government-exempt income (e.g., ITES/freelancing).

Income Heads: Select Income from Employment for salary and Financial Assets if you have bank or Sanchayapatra interest.

Click Save & Continue to complete location details. Mark conditional wealth triggers carefully — selecting “Yes” for a motor car, city corporation property, gross wealth over Tk 5,000,000, government/public sector employment, or being a shareholder director of any company automatically generates the required IT-10B Asset, Liabilities and expenses Statement.

Salary Income & Additional Income Sources

You’ll notice this guide doesn’t walk you through manual tax calculations — the e-Return portal handles that automatically once your figures are entered correctly. What actually determines whether your return is accurate isn’t your math, it’s the judgment calls along the way: which field a figure belongs in, which disclosures apply to you, and which mistakes quietly change your outcome. That’s what this guide focuses on.

Step-by-Step Salary Calculation

Calculating your taxable salary income on the NBR e-Return portal is streamlined and automated:

Employment Details: Input your employer’s name, designation, and employment category.

Salary Certificate Data: Enter the exact figures from your official Salary Certificate into the designated fields (Basic Salary, House Rent, Conveyance Allowance, Medical Allowance, Bonuses, etc.). The portal automatically applies the applicable statutory tax exemption (up to one-third of total salary or BDT 5,00,000, whichever is lower).

Non-Cash Benefits & Perquisites: If your employment package includes non-cash perks—such as rent-free accommodation or a company vehicle—select the appropriate checkboxes and enter the required details. The system will automatically calculate the taxable value of these benefits.

Declaring Other Income & TDS Details

After logging your salary information, proceed to report any supplementary income streams selected during initial setup:

Bank Interest & Sanchayapatra: For income derived from bank deposits or Sanchayapatra (Savings Certificates), input your bank account details or certificate registration numbers, total interest earned, and the corresponding Tax Deducted at Source (TDS/AIT).

Automated Summary: Once all income heads are populated, the e-Return portal automatically computes your total taxable income, completing the first major phase of your tax return filing.

Tax Rebate Maximization on Investment Allowance

A tax rebate is the most effective way to significantly reduce your gross tax liability. However, to avail of this tax credit facility, you must invest or donate in eligible areas mentioned in the Sixth Schedule of the Income Tax Act, 2023.

Every year, while reviewing files with my team before submission, I see the same two mistakes repeat. Many taxpayers simply don’t know where they’re allowed to invest or donate under tax law, or how much each option qualifies for — so they either pick the wrong instrument and get no benefit, or invest far less than they’re entitled to claim. Others wait until the end of the financial year to start planning, by which time they can’t arrange the full amount needed to claim the maximum rebate. Either way, the result is the same: a facility they were fully eligible for goes unclaimed, not because of their income, but because of timing.

If you have eligible investments or donations as prescribed by tax law, enter them in the tax rebate section of the portal. The e-Return system automatically calculates your eligible investment allowance and applicable tax rebate, deducting it from your gross tax liability.

You don’t need to perform any manual calculations — just input your details carefully into the correct fields, since entering information in the wrong section will result in an incorrect tax calculation.

Wealth and Lifestyle Expenses Disclosure

Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Expenses (IT-10B)

If you met any of the wealth-trigger conditions on the initial page, you’re now required to submit the IT-10B statement — a balance sheet of sorts, matching your assets against liabilities to arrive at your net worth. It’s one of the more complex parts of return preparation, so it deserves care.

During tax training sessions I conduct every year between July and October, I get one question more than any other: should gold be declared at 50 bhori, or somewhere close to it, even if that’s not what’s actually owned? Taxpayers assume a larger declared asset base gives them room to make bigger purchases later without explaining where the money came from. It works the opposite way: a declared figure that doesn’t match your income history is what draws attention, not what prevents it.

Under the Finance Act 2026, gold is now a defined capital asset — and that creates a real financial burden down the line if someone later tries to sell it at a fictitious price or quietly drop it from their statement. Once it’s on record, both routes create a mismatch that’s harder to explain than the original disclosure would have been.

Once you’ve entered all assets and liabilities, watch for the balancing figure the portal generates. If it doesn’t reconcile, you’ll adjust your personal and family living expenses (IT-10BB) to bring it into balance — this is normal, but the expense figure should be reasonable, not whatever number happens to make the sheet balance.

Statement of Lifestyle Expenses (IT-10BB)

When completing your return, you must also report your personal and family living expenses incurred during the year. Since most taxpayers do not maintain day-to-day itemized records, estimating these expenses correctly can be challenging.

Then allocate this amount using your best judgment across categories such as house rent, food, festival expenses, children’s education, and tax payments.

Tax Payment, Review and Submit

Now it is time to check whether you need to pay any additional tax based on your calculated taxable income. First, enter all Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) and advance tax payments made during the income year 2025–26. Provide the details from your tax challans so the e-Return portal can automatically credit the tax you have already paid.

If you still have outstanding tax payable, you can pay directly through the system using internet banking, debit or credit cards, or mobile financial services (MFS). Conversely, if you have paid excess tax, the surplus will be carried forward to the next year, allowing you to adjust it against your future tax liability.

Once all payment and credit details are entered, review your entire tax return carefully before clicking the submit button. After submitting, download and save your official tax acknowledgement receipt for your records.

If you have any doubts during the process, consulting a qualified tax professional is a smart strategy—they can help structure and reconcile your file correctly in the first year, making self-filing much easier for you in the years to come.

Frequently Asked Questions About Salaried e-Return Filing