Tax clearance certificate in Nepal: how to get one online

The certificate says that a taxpayer — identified by their PAN — has paid the income tax due for a named fiscal year. IRD issues one per fiscal year. Getting one is not compulsory: IRD's FAQ says so plainly. You get it when someone asks for it.

The one who asks is most often an embassy. A parent or sponsor paying for study abroad is asked to show that the income in the file is real and taxed — the Australian High Commission in Nepal, for one, names tax clearance certificates among the official, verifiable government tax documents. Banks ask for it with a loan, and offices with a tender.

The online certificate with a QR code is for a person whose only income is a salary from one employer. IRD's notice words it as a natural person with no income other than employment income from a single employer. If that is you, and your employer has deducted and deposited your tax, you do not have to file a return to get it.

If you had two employers in the year, or a salary plus a business, rent or any other income, the online form is not for you — you cannot honestly tick "no other income". That route is below.

The steps as IRD's own video shows them. You need your PAN and your taxpayer portal login.

1. 1Log in to IRD's taxpayer portal (ird.gov.np → Taxpayer Portal → General → Taxpayer Login).
2. 2On the Taxpayer's Page, choose Tax Clearance. The links for KYT and e-TDS are beside it.
3. 3Log in again on the e-returns page that opens, and choose Tax Clearance there.
4. 4Fill the e-Personal Tax Clearance Declaration Form: the fiscal year, your employer's PAN and district, then tick the declarations — that your employer has filed e-TDS, that you work for one employer, that you have no other income, whether you are in the Social Security Fund, and that the salary you declare is true. Add your mobile and email.
5. 5Enter your income and deductions on the next screen (Personal Income Tax for Remuneration Only), press Calculate Tax, then Submit.
6. 6Print Certificate. It carries a QR code that lets anyone check it.

If the online form is not for you, you first file your income tax return (आय विवरण) for the year — IRD's FAQ says a person with more than one job at a time, or a job and a business, must file one. Then you apply at your Inland Revenue Office or Taxpayer Service Office.

• an application with a Rs 10 revenue stamp
• the return filed and the tax paid for that year
• no unpaid tax or missing returns from earlier years
• for salary income, your employer's statement of the salary paid and tax deposited
• anything else the office asks for

• Fee: none, provided no tax is outstanding.
• Time: online, IRD's video goes from Submit straight to the printable certificate. At an office there is no published number of days.
• Fiscal year: one certificate per year. Returns are due by the end of Ashoj, with up to three months' extension on request; IRD's video, recorded in Mangsir 2082, issued one for 2081/82 — so last year's certificate is normally available online by then.
• How many years a visa needs: that is the embassy's or the university's rule, not IRD's — check what your file asks for, and get one certificate for each year.

Anyone can check one on IRD's site under Tax Clearance search (कर चुक्ता खोजी): enter the PAN, the fiscal year and the certificate number (कर चुक्ता नं.). The IRD Nepal app has the same search. An embassy can do exactly this, so a certificate that does not match the search is worse than none.

A tax clearance certificate proves the income was taxed; the file usually needs the papers that say what the income is and who is paying. Each of these has a free maker here:

• Salary certificate from the sponsor's employer
• Sponsor affidavit — who is paying, and how much
• Relationship certificate in English, linking the student to the sponsor
• NOC for abroad study, from the Ministry of Education