Budget FY21: Advance tax on digital ads proposed

The government has proposed to impose a 10% Advance Tax on digital advertisements from 2020-21 fiscal year.

This means the tax will be imposed on any advertisement put on social media, such as Facebook and Youtube or search engines like Google.

As per the new measures, the tax will be deducted from any income remitted from abroad in connection with any service, revenue sharing, etc and the advertisers will have to pay the proposed tax on digital advertisement, according to Finance Bill 2020.

The bill says the tax will be deducted at the time of making payment of the sum or crediting the sum from abroad by way of a fee, service charges, commission or remuneration to the account of the payee on use of any online platform for advertisement or any other purposes.

The government in 2019 fiscal imposed a 15% value added tax on advertisements published in on digital services.

On April 12, 2018, the High Court ordered the government to realise appropriate tax, VAT, and other charges from revenues earned by different digital platforms like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo, and YouTube.

Earlier this year, Bangladesh Bank asked all banks to be strict on the payment procedure and deduct 15% VAT on overseas payments for online purchases and adverts on digital platforms.

The move came following a request from the National Board of Revenue (NBR) on deducting VAT on payments for internet services, adverts on digital platforms, and other related services received from abroad.