The following income shall be excluded from computation of total income, namely:—

(1) The income of any inter-governmental organization or any international organization or any of its employees exempted from income-tax under any Act made by the Parliament or any treaty signed by the Government;

(2) Any of the following incomes—

(a) received by any ambassador, high commissioner, envoy, minister, charge d’affairs, commissioner, counsellor, consul de carriere, secretary, adviser or attache of an embassy, high commission,
legation or commission of a foreign state, as remuneration from such state for service in such capacity;

(b) received by a trade commissioner or other official representative in Bangladesh of a foreign state (not holding office as such in an honorary capacity) as his official salary, if the official salary of the corresponding officials, if any, of the Government, resident for similar purposes in the country concerned, enjoy a similar exemption in that country;

(c) received by a member of the staff of any of the officials referred to in clauses (a) and (b), as his official salary, when such member is not a citizen of Bangladesh and is either a subject of the country represented or a subject of some other foreign State and is not engaged in any business or profession or employment in Bangladesh otherwise than as a member of such staff, and the country represented has made corresponding provisions for similar exemptions in the case of members of the staff of the corresponding officials of the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in that country;

(3) grants received by Government or local authorities and any taxes, fees and duties;

(4) Any pension due to, or received by an assessee from the Government or an approved Pension Fund;

(5) Any income up to Taka two crore fifty lakh received by an assessee as gratuity from the Government Gratuity Fund;

(6) any recognized Provident Fund, approved Superannuation Fund, Pension Fund and approved Provident Fund—

(a) any contribution received by the said funds from the employee or employer; and

(b) income, distributed among the beneficiaries of the said funds, which has been taxed in the hands of the fund:

Provided that the amount received by the assessee as gratuity from any approved gratuity fund shall not exceed the limit of Taka 2 (two) crore and 50 (fifty) lakh;

(7) Any income accruing to, or derived by, a Provident Fund to which the Provident Fund Act, 1925 (Act No. 19 of 1925), applies;

(8) Any amount received by an employee of a government organization, a local authority, or an autonomous or semi-autonomous body including the units or enterprises controlled by it, at the time of his voluntary retirement in accordance with any scheme approved by the Government in this behalf;

(9) Any sum or aggregate of sums received as interest from pensioners’ savings certificate where the total accumulated investment at the end of the relevant income year in such certificate does not exceed Realized Value/ Actual Value/ Face Value/ Purchase Value of Taka five lakh;

(10) Any income earned by the following entities recognized by the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission, namely:—

(a) Mutual Fund;

(b) Alternative Investment Fund;

(c) Real Estate Investment Trust;

(d) Exchange Traded Fund;

(11) Income derived from house-property under a trust or other legal obligation held wholly for charitable or religious purposes, except in the case of private institutions registered by the Bureau of NGO Affairs, if the said income—

(a) used for charitable or religious purposes in Bangladesh in the relevant income year; or

(b) is not used for any charitable or religious purpose, but is accumulated or finally set apart, for application to such purposes in Bangladesh, and—

(i) inform the Deputy Commissioner of Taxes for what reason and for what period such income has been accumulated or set aside;

(ii) the period referred to in sub-clause (i) does not exceed 10 (ten) years;

(iii) such accumulated or set-aside money is invested in Government securities or in any other securities approved by the Government for the purpose, or deposited in any Post Office Savings Bank, or deposited in any such Scheduled Bank of which 51% (fifty-one per cent) or more shares held by Government;

²[ (12) Any donation or grant, if it-

(a) is received by a religious institution, or any institution, run for charitable purpose and approved by the Commissioner of Taxes, and is expended for religious or charitable purpose; or

(b) is received by a person approved by the NGO Affairs Bureau; ]

³[ (13) Service charges arising out of operation of microcredit activities by any entity registered with the Microcredeit Regulatory Authority subject to compliance with the following conditions:

(a) except in the cases prescribed by laws, such service charge shall be revolved only in microcredit; and

(b) such entity registered with the Microcredit Regulatory Authority shall not be engaged in any activities other than the operational microcredit activities;

(c) conditions mentioned in sub-clause (b) shall be applicable from the assessment year 2026-27;

(d) only so much of service charge as is not revolved in any assessment year shall be taxable;

Explanation.- For the purposes of this clause, “service charge” means any financial charge or interest or share of profit, called by whatever name, paid or payable by the borrower against the money borrowed under the microcredit activities of private organization; ]

(14) Reimbursement of expenses of an employee by an employer if—

(a) the said expenditure is wholly and necessarily incurred in the performance of the duties of the employee; and

(b) it was most advantageous for the employer to incur such expenditure through the said employee;

⁴[ (15) Part of income, received by a beneficiary of a trust or a participant in a fund as part of the income of the trust or fund, on which tax has been paid by the said trust or fund; ]

(16) Any sum received by an assesseeas a member of a Hindu undivided family where such sum has been paid out of the income of the family;

(17) Any income earned in abroad by an individual assessee being a Bangladeshi citizen and brought any such income into Bangladesh as per existing laws applicable in respect of foreign remittance;

(18) Any income received by an assesse from wage earners development bond, US dollar premium bond, US dollar investment bond, Euro premium bond, Euro investment bond, Pound sterling investment bond or Pound sterling premium bond;

(19) Income of an individual, being an indigenous hillman, Tribes, Minorities, Ethnic Groups of any of the hill districts of Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachari, which has been derived solely from economic activities undertaken within the said hill districts;

(20) Any income, not exceeding 2 (two) lakh Taka, chargeable under the head “Income from Agriculture” of a assessee, being an individual:—

(a) is a farmer by occupation;

(b) has no income in the relevant income year other than the following income, namely;-

(i) income arising from the cultivation of land;

(ii) Income not exceeding 20 (twenty) thousand Taka on account of interest or profit.

⁵[ (21) Any income derived from the following business of a person being a resident or a non-resident Bangladeshi individual for the period from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2027, namely:—

(a) AI based solution development;

(b) blockchain based solution development;

(c) robotics process outsourcing;

(d) software as a service;

(e) cyber security service;

(f) digital data analytics and data science;

(g) mobile application development service;

(h) software development and customization;

(i) software test lab service;

(j) web listing, Website development and service;

(k) IT assistance and software maintenance service;

(l) geographic Information Service;

(m) digital animation development;

(n) digital graphics design;

(o) digital data entry and processing;

(p) e-learning platform and e-publication;

(q) IT Freelancing;

(r) call center service;

(s) document conversion, imaging and digital archiving:

Provided that all income, expenditure and investment of the business shall be performed wholly through bank transfer from July 1, 2024; ]

(22) Any income derived from the export of handicrafts for the period from the first day of July, 2020 to the thirtieth day of June, 2024;

(23) Any amount paid by the Government as tax on behalf of a petroleum exploration company engaged in exploration of petroleum products in Bangladesh under Production Sharing Contract (PSC) with the Government of Bangladesh;

(24) Income derived from any Small and Medium Enterprise (SME), engaged in production of any goods, having—

(a) an annual turnover of not more than Taka 70 (seventy) lakhs where the SME is owned by women;

(b) in other cases, an annual turnover of not more than Taka 50 (fifty) lakhs;

(25) Any income derived from Zero Coupon Bond received by a person other than Bank, Insurance or any ⁶[finance company], subject to the following conditions:—

(a) that the Zero Coupon Bond is issued by Bank, Insurance or any ⁷[finance company] with prior approval of Bangladesh Bank and Securities Exchange Commission;

(b) that the Zero Coupon Bond is issued by institutions other than Bank, Insurance or any ⁸[finance company] with prior approval of the Securities Exchange Commission;

(26) Any income, not being interest or individual classified under the head “Income from Financial asset” received by any educational institution, if it—

(a) is enlisted for Monthly Pay Order (MPO) of the government;

(b) follows the curriculum approved by the government;

(c) is governed by body formed as per government rules or regulations;

(27) One-third of the income computed as “income from employment” or 4 (four) lakh 50 (fifty) thousand Taka whichever is less;

(28) Any income, not being interest or dividend received by any public university ⁹[***] or

(29) Any amount in the nature of an honorarium or allowance from Bangladesh Mukti joddha kalian Trust or any welfare allowance received by any person from the Government;

(30) Any reward received by any person from the Government;

(31) Any income derived from the operation of an elderly care home;

(32) Any distribution of taxed dividend to a company if the company distributing such taxed dividend has maintained separate account for the taxed dividend;

(33) ¹⁰[***]

¹¹[ (34) Any income arising as pension under Universal Pension Scheme; ]

¹²[ (35) Any asset received as gift from husband-wife, mother-father or children if it is shown in the returns of giver and recipient:

Provided that, where the gift is remitted from abroad to the recipient in Bangladesh through banking channel, in that case, the condition of showing such gift in the return of the giver shall not apply;

(36) Any capital gain not exceeding Taka 50 (fifty) lakh received by an individual, which is-

(a) derived from the transfer of shares or units of any listed company or fund; and

(b) not derived from the transfer of shares or units of sponsors, directors or placement holders of any company or fund. ]