Dhaka, June 30 (New Age): The National Board of Revenue
is going to finalise by today rules for the house owners having income more
than Tk 25,000 from their house property to deposit house rent through banks,
officials said.
The rules will describe the procedure how the house
owners will maintain bank accounts for receiving house rent through banks, they
said.
The revenue board has recently introduced a system under
which a landlord will have to receive house rent through banks if his or her
total income from house property crosses above Tk 25,000 a month.
The provision which will be effective from July 1 has
been introduced to ensure transparency in the process of house rent collection
in order to widen tax net and prevent tax evasion by the house owners.
According to the proposed rule, a house owner will have
to maintain a separate bank account to deposit his/her income from house
property.
Tenants can directly deposit the house rent to the
dedicated account or the house owner will deposit the money collected in cash
or cheques, officials said.
According to the Finance Bill-2014 approved by parliament
on Saturday, the revenue board will impose penalty on the house owners at the
rate of 50 per cent of taxes payable on income derived from house property or
Tk 5,000, whichever is higher, for not transacting the house rent through
banks.
‘The responsibility of depositing house rent to the
account will go to the house owners and if they do not do so, the NBR will
impose the penalty,’ a high official said.
Initially, the revenue board had planned to include a
provision authorising banks to deduct tax at source on income derived from
house rent before making payment to the house owners.
But the idea was dropped later considering issues like
the house owners may not have taxable income after payment of bank interest on
loan taken for construction of the house.
Now, house owners will pay the tax during submission of
their income tax returns.