The National Board of Revenue has decided to launch a coordinated move against the companies which submit fake audit reports with their income tax returns to ensure collection of right amount of income taxes from them, officials said.
Taxmen suspect that half of the return submitting companies submitted fake audit reports to the revenue board in last financial year to evade income tax through hiding actual income.
The NBR will involve Office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission and Bangladesh Bank to detect false audit reports, officials said.
‘The revenue board cannot assess actual amount of income tax payable by the companies if they do not submit financial statements audited by chartered accountants,’ a senior NBR official told New Age on Thursday.
Submission of audited financial statements along with the income tax returns is mandatory for the corporate taxpayers, he said.
A total of 21,650 companies, out of the 47,434 registered corporate taxpayers, submitted their income tax returns in last fiscal year 2014-2015, he said.
On the other hand, only 12,000 companies submitted their audited financial statements to the Office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms which is the controlling authority of the companies, he said.
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh also informed the revenue board that they conduct audits into on an average 12,000 to 14,000 financial statements of companies in the country, he added.
‘The remaining audit reports submitted to the NBR by the companies are not prepared by the chartered accountants,
meaning that these are fake,’ he said adding that many companies prepared such reports copying the signature of chartered accountants.
In this context, the revenue board last week decided to arrange a coordination meeting with RJSC, Bangladesh Bank, ICAB and BSEC to find ways to prevent fake audit report submission, he added.
Registered companies have to submit audited financial statements every year to the RJSC as a condition of their registration with the body while ICAB members conduct audits into the financial statements of the companies.
The companies listed with the country’s stock exchanges have to submit audited financial statements to the BSEC while submission of audit reports is necessary for receiving loans from banks.
The revenue board has no effective mechanism to detect false audit reports and it needs support from other bodies
related with the system, officials said.
They said that at the meeting tax officials might discuss ways including creation of a database of electronic signature
of the chartered accountants for detecting fake signature.
According to the RJSC, a total of 1,85,160 entities including private, public and foreign companies, partnership firms, society and trade organisations have so far received registration from the entity.
Of them, 1,36,923 are registered as company.
Taxmen suspect that half of the return submitting companies submitted fake audit reports to the revenue board in last financial year to evade income tax through hiding actual income.
The NBR will involve Office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission and Bangladesh Bank to detect false audit reports, officials said.
‘The revenue board cannot assess actual amount of income tax payable by the companies if they do not submit financial statements audited by chartered accountants,’ a senior NBR official told New Age on Thursday.
Submission of audited financial statements along with the income tax returns is mandatory for the corporate taxpayers, he said.
A total of 21,650 companies, out of the 47,434 registered corporate taxpayers, submitted their income tax returns in last fiscal year 2014-2015, he said.
On the other hand, only 12,000 companies submitted their audited financial statements to the Office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms which is the controlling authority of the companies, he said.
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh also informed the revenue board that they conduct audits into on an average 12,000 to 14,000 financial statements of companies in the country, he added.
‘The remaining audit reports submitted to the NBR by the companies are not prepared by the chartered accountants,
meaning that these are fake,’ he said adding that many companies prepared such reports copying the signature of chartered accountants.
In this context, the revenue board last week decided to arrange a coordination meeting with RJSC, Bangladesh Bank, ICAB and BSEC to find ways to prevent fake audit report submission, he added.
Registered companies have to submit audited financial statements every year to the RJSC as a condition of their registration with the body while ICAB members conduct audits into the financial statements of the companies.
The companies listed with the country’s stock exchanges have to submit audited financial statements to the BSEC while submission of audit reports is necessary for receiving loans from banks.
The revenue board has no effective mechanism to detect false audit reports and it needs support from other bodies
related with the system, officials said.
They said that at the meeting tax officials might discuss ways including creation of a database of electronic signature
of the chartered accountants for detecting fake signature.
According to the RJSC, a total of 1,85,160 entities including private, public and foreign companies, partnership firms, society and trade organisations have so far received registration from the entity.
Of them, 1,36,923 are registered as company.
Source: New Age
