Income tax files have been opened for all Members of Parliament (MPs), as stated by the Inland Revenue Department (IRD).

This was revealed at a workshop conducted last week by the IRD on the completion and submission of the annual income report to the IRD online.

The IRD stated that failure to complete the report for the year 2022/2023, i.e., from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023, would result in the imposition of a fine of Rs. 50,000. 

It also warned that a 5% penalty on the tax payable would be imposed on those who maintained tax files without submitting the report by the relevant date.

In accordance with the country’s newly-introduced income tax law, from January 2023, professionals, including doctors, architects, bankers, and lawyers of the Supreme Court, have to be registered with the IRD.

All 225 presently functioning parliamentarians are said to have opened tax files.

State Minister of Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya told The Sunday Morning that the Presidential Secretariat was planning to introduce a mechanism to ensure that all MPs had opened tax files. 

He said: “Being an MP is not an exception, but rather makes it mandatory to set an example for others as well.”

Effective from 1 June 2023, all doctors, accountants, engineers, bankers, architects, quantity surveyors, lawyers, individuals who have registered their businesses in Divisional Secretariats, individuals who are in possession of vehicles registered (other than three-wheelers, motorcycles, and hand tractors) with the Motor Traffic Department, individuals who have purchased or acquired by virtue of deeds of transfer any immovable property in Sri Lanka on or after 1 April 2018, and employees whose monthly contribution from both employee and employer to any provident fund is more than Rs. 20,000 are required to open a tax file.