The year the rules started reading your books
2026 brought more change for businesses here than any recent year: how VAT is filed, how startups are taxed, where SME credit comes from, who invests in whom, and who approves what. Every one of these changes, read closely, is a demand on your records. Here they are in one place, each with a link to the longer read.
VAT returns went online-only
From 1 July 2026, VAT returns are filed online on form Mushak 9.1 through the NBR portal, and manual filing has been dispensed with. Most registered businesses file monthly, generally within 15 days of the period end. The full story, including the paper-return upload that left some businesses with opening balances the portal will not accept, is in our note on online VAT returns.
What it asks of your books: a month that closes by the middle of the following month, every month, because a portal deadline does not move for a busy bookkeeper.
Startup turnover tax fell to zero
The Finance Act 2026, effective 1 July, cut the minimum tax on NBR-registered startups' turnover from 0.1 percent to zero through nine growth years, with losses carried forward up to nine assessment years and reporting relief for startups that give the tax authority read-only access to a live accounting system. Who qualifies and what the conditions quietly assume is in our note on the startup tax changes.
What it asks of your books: a ledger that can defend the turnover you claim, losses recorded cleanly in the right period, and books current enough to show a tax officer on any Tuesday.
A Tk 5,000 crore fund for SME working capital
In June, Bangladesh Bank opened a revolving refinance fund lending banks money at 4 percent so CMSMEs can borrow working capital at no more than 9 percent, with a three-to-six-month grace period. CIB defaulters are excluded, and everything else is the lending bank's call. What the application actually tests is in our note on the SME fund.
What it asks of your books: financial statements for last year, this year and a projection, a bank statement that agrees with your claimed sales, and instalments that never surprise you.
A Fund of Funds for the startup ecosystem
On 16 August, Startup Bangladesh Limited began operating a Tk 400 crore Fund of Funds that backs venture capital fund managers rather than startups directly, each manager committing at least matching capital toward Bangladesh. Founders will pitch the funds it pays, and those funds run professional diligence. What that means for your records is in our note on the Fund of Funds.
What it asks of your books: statements that reconcile, revenue you can evidence, and a data room that exists before anyone asks for it.
Three investment agencies became one
Under the Invest Bangladesh Act 2026, BIDA, BEZA and the PPP Authority merged into a single authority, Invest Bangladesh, gazetted on 20 August. Company registration at the RJSC and tax at the NBR are untouched. What transfers and what a foreign-owned company should check is in our note on the merger.
What it asks of your books: clean records of approvals, filings and correspondence, so a change of counter does not become a loss of history.
Five different changes, one common thread: each one assumes your records are current, reconciled and defensible. The businesses that benefit first are the ones whose books were ready before the rules asked.
Where we stop
We do not file returns, register startups, arrange loans or set up entities. Those belong to licensed firms, banks and your own advisers, and we say so on every page of this site. What we do is keep the records every one of these changes reads: books kept current, backlogs cleared, and reports written to be read.
Sources
- Each linked article above carries its own dated sources: NBR and reporting on online VAT filing; the Finance Act 2026 and practitioner summaries; the Bangladesh Bank SMESPD circular of 8 June 2026; Startup Bangladesh Limited's Fund of Funds announcement; and the Invest Bangladesh Act 2026 gazette of 20 August 2026.
Start with a look at your books.
Fifteen minutes, no charge. We say honestly whether we can help, and what it would cost.