How to Pay VAT

Every VAT-registered business in Bangladesh has one recurring, non-negotiable obligation: filing the monthly VAT return, known as Mushak 9.1, through the NBR's e-VAT system at vat.gov.bd. The deadline is the 15th of the following month, so January's return is due by February 15th, and this applies whether you had sales that month or not. A zero-activity month still requires a nil return.

The return itself is really the output of your bookkeeping, not a standalone form. You need your sales challans (Mushak 6.3), your purchase challans, and any VAT Deducted at Source certificates reconciled before you can file accurately. This is where most small businesses run into trouble: not with the filing step, but with getting to a clean, reconciled number to file in the first place.

Missing the deadline carries a penalty, and NBR's system now flags late or mismatched filings automatically rather than relying on manual review at the local circle, so there's less room for a quiet grace period than there used to be. Repeated missed filings can also affect your standing for future refund claims. Given how tightly enforced the 15th-of-the-month deadline has become, most growing businesses find it's worth having someone dedicated to closing the books early enough each month to file with room to spare, rather than treating VAT as a last-minute scramble.