Shapla- a Free Tax Calculator and Filing Platform

Bangladeshi start-up Shapla is going to launch a new platform called Shapla Tax shortly. Through this platform, the citizens of the country can calculate and pay their taxes online. This new B-to-C platform aims to automate the complex process of tax filing and returns in a simple and efficient manner. According to the National Board of Revenue (NBR), Bangladesh has a total population of 169 million, of which only 6.7 million are tax payers. This number is only one percent of the total population. A recent announcement by the government made it mandatory for online business ventures with a profit of more than BDT 200,000 to pay tax and for freelancers to submit zero tax returns. Shapla Tax is going to enter the market with the aim of helping individual tax payers to automate this complex manual process of tax filing. In our country we usually have to do tax payment manually at individual level which is really troublesome. This new feature has already been used by several users in 2021-22. Shapla has also developed a free tax calculator to make life easier for taxpayers. And in this automated system, the whole process is done through the web portal. “Currently every taxpayer of Bangladesh has to spend Tk. 3,500 to Tk. 5,000 if they consult a lawyer or a tax accountant. It takes a lot of time and effort that goes into highly manual processes,” said Tasneem Mortaza, Co-Founder and CEO of Shapla. She further said, “Shapla can easily do this complicated process within Tk. 2,000. And that is after consulting tax lawyers. Thus, Shapla aims to make the entire process easy for everyone. Shapla is committed to building a digital Bangladesh by creating awareness about calculating and filing taxes and paying taxes with ease at the individual level.” Hussain Md Ilyas, co-founder of Pathao, a customer of Shapla Tax, said, “I really hate doing tax calculations. I didn't have to do it this year. Shapla has done it for me." Afnan Ibn Hashem, assistant manager of the online payment department of bKash Limited, is another customer of Shapla. "My taxes have already been filed," he said. Shapla deserves thanks for doing all my tax work with ease for the past four years. I wonder, why the schools do not teach to calculate taxes! Shapla has made this process very easy and transparent. I really like their service.” Since its inception in 2021, Shapla has served more than 50 businesses including leave management, resource management, payroll solutions for payroll, and developing human resource management modules. Besides, they have helped various companies to prevent financial losses due to money leakage, bring transparency in the organization and strengthen employee relations with companies.