ECONOMYNEXT –Sri Lanka’s Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has introduced a self declaration method to get exemption from Withholding Tax (WHT) deduction with effect from April 1 this year, a top official said.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s government has doubled the WHT to 10 percent on interest income from this month and the new method will allow people with and without Tax Identification Number (TIN) to get the exemption if they are eligible.
B.K.S. Shantha, Deputy Commissioner General of the IRD said people who have total annual income of less than 1.8 million rupees from all sources are eligible to request their respective banks not to deduct WHT from their interest income.
The self declaration form could be obtained through the IRD website or respective banks and those who have less than 1,8 million rupee annual income have to fill the form which should be handed over to the respective bank manager.
Shantha said people who have and do not have the TIN numbers can use the self declaration method.
He said those who do not have tax files will receive their TIN numbers next month after submitting their self declaration forms to banks.
“We have asked banks and financial institutions to accept the requests this month even from those who don’t have TIN numbers and hand over the details to IRD next month,” he told reporters at a media briefing on Wednesday (23).
“Then the Inland Revenue Department can go through the details and provide a TIN number for them. While giving the TIN number, we will be communicating to the banks on the TIN number we have given to them.”
Shantha also warned people of false information in their self declaration forms.
“If somebody is giving false information, then it is a punishable offence under the IRD Act. So I request people to be honest when you give the self declaration to the banks.” (Colombo/April/2025)
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