How This Free AI Skill Can Help You Calculate Tax and Navigate Bangladesh's NBR e-Return Portal

Every September, tax filing season quietly creeps up in Bangladesh. If you hold an e-TIN, filing an annual tax return is probably on your mind right now.

For a lot of university students and young graduates, holding a TIN was not necessarily about having a large income. Maybe you wanted to open a BO account to start learning how the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) works, or you took a part-time internship, or did some freelance work. But once a TIN is registered in your name, the law requires you to submit an annual return by Tax Day (typically November 30), even if your income is zero.

The trouble is, when you are still a student or just starting your career, spending 3,000 to 10,000 Taka to hire a tax lawyer or consultant just to submit a zero-income return makes very little sense.

Naturally, many of us turn to AI to help figure things out. But if you have ever tried asking a standard chatbot to help you file on the National Board of Revenue (NBR) portal, you have probably run into frustrating roadblocks.

To help solve this, an open-source project called the Youth Tax Calculator was shared with the community. Here is a look at why standard AI struggles with Bangladeshi taxes, and how adding this skill can help you calculate your numbers and walk through the portal step by step.

Why Taxes and Investing Go Hand in Hand

In Bangladesh, learning about personal finance and learning about taxes happen at the same time:

1. Opening a BO Account: To buy shares on the Dhaka Stock Exchange or invest in mutual funds, your broker requires an e-TIN.

2. Entering the Tax Net: Once that TIN exists, Section 166 of the Income Tax Act 2023 requires an annual filing on etaxnbr.gov.bd.

3. Claiming Rebates: Investing in secondary market shares, approved mutual funds, or setting up a monthly Deposit Pension Scheme (DPS) allows you to claim an investment tax rebate under the Sixth Schedule (Part 2), which directly reduces what you owe.

If you are paper-trading on StockSimulatorBD (https://www.stocksimulator.tech) and getting ready to trade real shares, knowing how your investments look on a tax return helps you avoid surprises down the road.

Where Standard AI Falls Short on NBR Filing

Using AI for tax guidance sounds helpful in theory, but general models—especially Google Gemini and ChatGPT—often run into specific issues when handling Bangladeshi returns:

1. They do not know what the NBR portal actually looks like. The NBR portal (etaxnbr.gov.bd) has a specific multi-step screen flow. Options on later pages only unlock if you ticked the right boxes on Screen 1. Because standard AI has never seen the actual interface, it often invents button names and menu options that do not exist.

2. They mix up old laws or foreign laws. Standard models often try to suggest Indian tax sections (like Section 80C) or US forms (like W-2s). Even when they talk about Bangladesh, they frequently mix up the old 1984 Income Tax Ordinance with the new Income Tax Act 2023.

3. The balance sheet headache on Form IT-10B. The trickiest part of the online form is usually the Statement of Assets and Liabilities (IT-10B) on Screen 6. The portal checks that your total assets equal your past wealth plus your income and outside funds, minus your personal expenses. If there is even a 1 Taka mismatch, the portal gives an error. Standard AI models rarely calculate this balance cleanly.

How This Skill Helps Your AI Guide You Better

To help fix these issues, Bangladeshi developer Md Al Shahoriar Hossain—the creator of StockSimulatorBD and shahoriar.bd—put together an open-source skill called the Youth Tax Calculator.

This is not a standalone app or a black-box calculator. Instead, it is a focused set of instructions that you add to your AI assistant. It equips the model with the official NBR e-Return user manual and the relevant sections of the Income Tax Act 2023, turning it into a much more reliable guide.

Here is how common youth situations are handled:

• University Stipends and Scholarships: These are 100% tax-exempt under the Sixth Schedule (Part 1). On Screen 1, you select "Tax Exempted Income: Yes", then list the amount under "Any Other Exemption".

• Parental Support and Pocket Money: Non-taxable under Section 56(g). These are entered in IT-10B under "Source of Fund" and then "Other Receipts".

• DSE Stock Holdings: Eligible for an investment rebate. These are entered in Schedule 5 under "Investment in Shares of Listed Companies".

• DPS Savings: Eligible for a rebate on deposits up to 1,20,000 Taka per year, entered in Schedule 5 under "Deposit Pension Scheme (DPS)".

• Zero Income or Nil Return: Total tax payable is 0.00 Taka. Minimum tax does not apply if your taxable income is below the 4,00,000 Taka tax-free threshold.

How to Walk Through Your Filing with AI

Once the skill is enabled in your AI tool, you do not have to guess what numbers go where. The assistant can work through your filing conversationally:

1. Review Your Numbers First: You can share what you earned from an internship, what your parents sent for living costs, or what you bought in your BO account.

2. Step-by-Step Screen Guidance: The AI tells you exactly which boxes to tick on Screen 1, what to fill in Schedule 1 for income, and where to report investments in Schedule 5.

3. Checking the Balance Sheet: Before you reach the final submission screen, the AI helps you cross-check your expenses against your assets so that your IT-10B reconciliation comes out to zero.

A Friendly Note on Human Advice

It is important to remember: an AI skill is an educational helper, not a substitute for a human tax lawyer or chartered accountant.

For students, interns, and beginners submitting a nil return or a simple single-source income return, having an AI that actually understands the NBR screens makes the process much less intimidating. But if you run an active business, own commercial property, or have complicated tax disputes, consulting a certified tax practitioner is always the right call.

Getting Started

The skill is open-source and free for anyone to use. You can read through the guide, view the tax rules, and find instructions on how to use it with your own AI setup on the project page:

Explore the Youth Tax Calculator Project: https://shahoriar.bd/projects/youth-tax-calculator

If you are currently learning how the market works on StockSimulatorBD (https://www.stocksimulator.tech), getting comfortable with your annual tax return is another practical step toward building real financial confidence.