Section 166(2)(h) of Bangladesh’s Income Tax Act, 2023 says filing a return is not mandatory for a non-resident individual with no fixed base in Bangladesh. That single line is the answer most Bangladeshis working in Dubai are looking for, and it is only half true, because section 264 of the same Act lists more than forty everyday transactions that force you to produce a Proof of Submission of Return before anyone will serve you.

This guide sets out what a Bangladeshi living in the UAE actually owes Dhaka: the residence test in section 2(45), the scope of charge in section 26, the exemption that makes remitted foreign income tax free and the exact condition attached to it, the 2.5 percent cash incentive and the circular that set it, the asset statement a non-resident Bangladeshi still has to file, the special Tax Day that applies only to people living abroad, and the Wage Earners’ Welfare Board obligations that sit outside the tax system entirely.

The Law Changed in 2023, and Most Guidance Has Not Caught Up

The Income Tax Ordinance, 1984 was replaced by the Income Tax Act, 2023, which the National Board of Revenue publishes in an authentic English text. The Ordinance still sits on the NBR website, labeled “as amended up to July, 2015,” and a large share of the advice circulating in Bangladeshi expatriate groups still quotes its section numbers.

Section references matter here because the practical rules changed alongside the numbering. The Finance Act, 2024 moved several thresholds inside the 2023 Act, including the asset statement trigger, which went from Taka 40 lakh to Taka 50 lakh with effect from 1 July 2024. If a source quotes the 1984 Ordinance, treat every figure in it as unverified.

Are You Still a Resident of Bangladesh?

Section 2(45) makes you a resident of Bangladesh for an income year if you were present in the country for 183 days or more in that year, or for 90 days or more in that year having previously been present for 365 days or more across the four preceding years. There is no separate citizenship test for individuals. Miss both limbs and you are a non-resident, whatever your passport says.

The second limb is the one that catches people, because it is cumulative across five years rather than one. A Dubai-based Bangladeshi who spends eight to ten weeks a year at home, every year, will pass 365 days across four years without noticing, and then a single three-month stretch at home takes them over 90 days and back into residence for that whole year.

What residence actually changes

Section 26 draws the line. A resident is charged on all income “from whatever source derived,” whether it accrues inside or outside Bangladesh and whether it is received inside or outside Bangladesh. A non-resident is charged only on income that accrues or arises in Bangladesh, or is received in Bangladesh.

So a UAE salary is outside the Bangladeshi charge entirely while you are non-resident, which is what a tax-free UAE salary means in practice for someone who has genuinely left. Rent from a flat in Dhanmondi is inside it either way. The same split applies to the reporting duties described below, which is why the residence question is worth answering before anything else.

Obligation Resident Bangladeshi Non-resident Bangladeshi (UAE)
Charge on UAE salary Yes, worldwide income (s.26(1)(a)) No, Bangladesh-source only (s.26(1)(b))
Return of income Mandatory above the exemption limit (s.166(1)(a)) Not mandatory if no fixed base in Bangladesh (s.166(2)(h))
Statement of assets and liabilities All assets in Bangladesh and abroad (s.167(2)) Assets situated in Bangladesh only (s.167(3))
Penalty for undisclosed offshore assets Equal to the asset’s fair market value (s.21) Not applicable, the section names a resident Bangladeshi
Investment tax rebate Available (s.78) Available, s.78 names “a resident or a Bangladeshi non-resident”

Paragraph 17 of Part 1 of the Sixth Schedule exempts any income earned abroad by an individual assessee who is a Bangladeshi citizen and brought into Bangladesh “as per existing laws applicable in respect of foreign remittance.” The exemption attaches to the channel, not to the earnings. Money that arrives through hundi or a hand carry is outside the wording.

That is the difference the Act draws, and it is worth restating because it is usually described the wrong way round. Your Dubai salary is not exempt because you earned it abroad. It is exempt because a Bangladeshi citizen brought it home through a bank. Send the same money informally and the paragraph does not reach it.

The bonds that carry their own exemption

Paragraph 18 of the same Part exempts income received from the Wage Earner Development Bond, the US Dollar Premium Bond, the US Dollar Investment Bond, the Euro Premium Bond, the Euro Investment Bond, and the Pound Sterling Investment and Premium Bonds. These are the instruments sold specifically to non-resident Bangladeshis, and the exemption is written into the Act rather than granted by circular, which makes it durable.

Read paragraphs 17 and 18 together and the design is clear: bring the money in through a bank, and if you park it in a wage earner instrument, the return on it is exempt too. Both steps have to be documented, because the exemption is claimed on a return, not applied automatically at the counter.

The 2.5 Percent Cash Incentive, and Where It Comes From

Bangladesh pays a 2.5 percent cash incentive on remittances sent home through legal channels. The instrument is FE Circular Letter No. 01 of 2 January 2022, issued by Bangladesh Bank’s Foreign Exchange Policy Department, which raised the existing 2 percent rate to 2.50 percent with effect from 1 January 2022, acting on Ministry of Finance memo 07.101.020.03.09.006.2019-287 of the same date.

The circular expressly continues the earlier instructions issued under FE Circular No. 31 of 6 August 2019, so the operational conditions attached to the original 2 percent scheme still apply. In practice that means the incentive is credited by the receiving bank on the taka conversion, and it is the receiving bank, not the exchange house in Deira or Karama, that pays it.

What actually happens at the receiving end

The beneficiary’s bank in Bangladesh credits the principal and the incentive as separate entries, usually on the same day for a same-day transfer and within a working day or two otherwise. Larger amounts attract a request for documentary evidence of the source of the income, which for a salaried worker means a labor contract or salary certificate issued under UAE labor law.

Because the incentive is paid on conversion into taka, holding the money in a foreign currency account at the receiving end takes it outside the scheme. That is a genuine trade-off rather than an oversight, and it is worth deciding deliberately before you set up a standing transfer. Our guide to sending money from the UAE covers the sending side of the same transaction, and a separate comparison of the Bangladesh corridor and its rates looks at where the exchange spread goes.

The Section 264 List Is Where Non-Residents Get Caught

Section 166(2)(h) removes the filing duty from a non-resident individual with no fixed base in Bangladesh. Section 166(1)(f) puts it straight back if you are required to furnish a Proof of Submission of Return under section 264. Section 264(3) then lists the transactions that require one, and only some of them are limited to residents.

Item 7, registration of a deed of transfer, bainanama or power of attorney for land or an apartment above Taka 10 lakh in a city corporation, paurashava or cantonment board area, is drafted as an obligation “by a resident.” Item 36, submitting tender documents, and item 29, receiving consultancy or similar payments from a company, are likewise limited to residents. Most of the rest are not.

Transaction (s.264(3)) Threshold Limited to residents?
Obtaining or maintaining a credit card (item 8) Any No
Opening or continuing a term deposit (item 22) Above Taka 10 lakh No
Purchasing savings instruments, Sanchayapatra (item 23) Above Taka 5 lakh No
Registration or change of ownership of a motor vehicle (item 32) Excludes two and three wheelers No
Electricity connection in a city corporation area (item 17) Any No
Building plan approval from RAJUK or a development authority (item 39) Any No
Registering a land or apartment transfer deed (item 7) Deed value above Taka 10 lakh Yes, drafted “by a resident”
Applying for a loan (item 1) Above Taka 20 lakh No

The practical shape of this is specific. A Dubai-based Bangladeshi who buys a flat in Dhaka may escape the PSR requirement on the deed itself, then trip it the moment they connect the electricity, register a car, or park the sale proceeds in a term deposit above Taka 10 lakh. At that point section 166(1)(f) requires a return for that income year, and section 264(6) requires the recipient of the proof to verify its authenticity. The same problem arrives with a gratuity: end-of-service gratuity paid on leaving the UAE is a single large sum, and parking it in a term deposit above Taka 10 lakh triggers item 22.

The Tax Day Rule Written for People Living Abroad

Section 2(23)(d) sets a different Tax Day for an individual assessee residing abroad: the 90th day from the date of return to Bangladesh, where the individual stays outside Bangladesh on leave for higher education, or on deputation or lien for employment. The general Tax Day for individuals is 30 November following the end of the income year, and 30 June for an individual who has never filed before.

The income year is the financial year immediately preceding the assessment year, which in Bangladesh runs 1 July to 30 June. Reading that against section 2(23), a first-time filer has until 30 June following the end of the income year, which is a full seven months longer than the ordinary deadline.

Why filing late costs more than a penalty

Section 174, substituted by the Finance Act, 2024 with effect from 1 July 2024, sets the tax on a late return as B plus (B minus C) multiplied by D multiplied by 0.02, where D is the number of months past Tax Day capped at 24. That is 2 percent a month on the unpaid balance, and it is not the expensive part.

The expensive part is the definition of B. It is the tax you would have paid had you filed on Tax Day, calculated “in such manner as would have been calculated where tax-exemption was not applicable.” On a late return, the remittance exemption in paragraph 17 is computed away before the surcharge is even applied.

What the Wage Earners’ Welfare Board Owes You

The Wage Earners’ Welfare Board, a statutory body under the Wage Earners’ Welfare Board Act, 2018, sits outside the tax system and is funded from migrant workers’ own contributions. It publishes a financial grant of 3 lakh Taka to the family of a worker who dies abroad, repatriation of remains, burial cost assistance for local interment, disability allowance, scholarships for migrant workers’ children, and legal aid both abroad and in Bangladesh.

Its overseas arm is 29 labor welfare wings attached to Bangladeshi missions, which in the UAE means the Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Consulate General in Dubai. The Board also runs safe houses for distressed female workers and the Probashi Bandhu call center, and it states that it serves more than 10 million Bangladeshi workers across 176 countries.

The decision point most workers get wrong

Welfare Board entitlements are tied to registration before departure, not to citizenship. A worker who left on a visit visa and converted to employment locally, or who joined a company through a relative rather than a licensed recruiting agency, will usually find the Board’s death and disability benefits unavailable at the moment their family needs them.

If your departure was not routed through the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, the fix is to raise it with the labor wing at the mission in Abu Dhabi or Dubai while you are still working, rather than leaving the question to a survivor. This is the single most consequential administrative item in this guide, and it costs nothing to check.

The Order to Do This In

Count your days in Bangladesh for the current income year and for the four preceding years before you do anything else, because both limbs of section 2(45) depend on that count and nothing downstream is decidable without it.

Then, in order: confirm whether any section 264 transaction applies to you in the current year; keep the bank advice for every remittance, because paragraph 17 relies on the channel; check that your Welfare Board registration exists and names a current nominee; and if you hold a Bangladeshi e-TIN and have ever been assessed, note that section 166(1)(b) requires a return from anyone assessed to tax in any of the three preceding years, regardless of residence. If the move home is permanent, plan the money side first, because moving a large sum out of the UAE and closing a UAE bank account correctly both take longer than people allow for.

Readers with the same question from other countries may find our guides for Pakistanis and Section 82(d) filer status and non-resident Indians in the UAE useful, since the residence tests differ sharply between the three.

What We Could Not Verify

Bangladesh Bank’s website refused every connection attempted for this guide, over plain requests and through a browser session alike. The 2.5 percent incentive circular was read from the Internet Archive’s copy of the original PDF, and the current-year confirmation that the rate is still 2.50 percent rests on that circular’s own continuing effect rather than on a 2026 restatement we could read at source. Check the rate with your receiving bank before relying on it.

The Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training site was also unreachable, so this guide states no BMET clearance fee, smart card fee or Welfare Board membership contribution. Reported figures for the migrant worker insurance premium and its coverage differ between news sources and could not be matched to a Board publication, so they are omitted rather than quoted.

We could not retrieve the text of any double taxation agreement between Bangladesh and the UAE from the National Board of Revenue, whose published treaty list on the site was incomplete at the time of writing. For a UAE-resident salaried worker this rarely matters, because the UAE levies no personal income tax on employment income and there is no double charge to relieve, but anyone with Bangladeshi business income should get the treaty position confirmed rather than assumed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do Bangladeshis working in Dubai have to pay tax in Bangladesh?

Not on the UAE salary, provided you are a non-resident. Section 26(1)(b) of the Income Tax Act, 2023 charges a non-resident only on income that accrues or arises in Bangladesh or is received in Bangladesh. Separately, paragraph 17 of Part 1 of the Sixth Schedule exempts income earned abroad by a Bangladeshi citizen and brought into Bangladesh through legal remittance channels.

How many days can I spend in Bangladesh before becoming a resident?

Under section 2(45), 183 days or more in an income year makes you resident. So does 90 days or more in the income year if you were previously in Bangladesh for 365 days or more across the four preceding years. The four-year limb is cumulative, so regular annual visits build toward it even when no single year looks long.

Does a non-resident Bangladeshi have to file a tax return?

Section 166(2)(h) says filing is not mandatory for a non-resident individual with no fixed base in Bangladesh. However, section 166(1)(b) requires a return from anyone assessed to tax in any of the three preceding years, and section 166(1)(f) requires one from anyone obliged to furnish a Proof of Submission of Return under section 264.

What is the 2.5 percent remittance incentive and who pays it?

It is a government cash incentive on remittances sent home through legal channels, set by Bangladesh Bank FE Circular Letter No. 01 of 2 January 2022, which raised the rate from 2 percent to 2.50 percent with effect from 1 January 2022. It is credited by the receiving bank in Bangladesh on conversion into taka, not by the exchange house in the UAE.

Will I lose the remittance exemption if I send money through hundi?

Paragraph 17 of Part 1 of the Sixth Schedule exempts foreign income “brought any such income into Bangladesh as per existing laws applicable in respect of foreign remittance.” Money moved outside the banking system does not meet that wording, so the exemption cannot be claimed on it, and it also fails to earn the 2.5 percent incentive.

Do I have to declare my UAE bank account to Bangladesh?

Not while you are a non-resident. Section 167(3) requires a non-resident Bangladeshi assessee to file a statement of all assets and liabilities situated in Bangladesh. Section 167(2) requires a resident Bangladeshi to state assets both inside and outside Bangladesh, so the position reverses if you become resident again.

What is the penalty for not disclosing an offshore asset?

Section 21 charges a penalty equal to the fair market value of the undisclosed offshore asset. Its wording applies to “any person being a resident Bangladeshi,” so it does not reach a non-resident. It becomes live in the first income year you are treated as resident again, which is a reason to time a permanent return carefully.

When is my tax return due if I live abroad?

Section 2(23)(d) sets Tax Day for an individual assessee residing abroad at the 90th day from the date of return to Bangladesh, where the person is outside the country on leave for higher education, or on deputation or lien for employment. Otherwise the general date for individuals is 30 November following the end of the income year, and 30 June for someone who has never filed.

Which transactions in Bangladesh require proof that I filed a return?

Section 264(3) lists more than forty, including holding a credit card, a term deposit above Taka 10 lakh, savings instruments above Taka 5 lakh, registering a motor vehicle, an electricity connection in a city corporation area, and a loan above Taka 20 lakh. Registering a property transfer deed is drafted as an obligation of a resident, so it does not catch a non-resident on its own terms.

Can a non-resident Bangladeshi claim the investment tax rebate?

Yes. Section 78 grants the general rebate to “an individual, being a resident or a Bangladeshi non-resident,” subject to Part 3 of the Sixth Schedule. The rebate is the lower of 3 percent of eligible total income, 15 percent of eligible investment, or Taka 10 lakh, and it can only be taken on a filed return.

Official Sources

Information current as of September 2026. Bangladeshi tax thresholds, incentive rates and reporting obligations change with each Finance Act, and residence is decided on facts specific to your travel history. Confirm your position with the National Board of Revenue or a Bangladeshi tax practitioner before relying on any treatment described here.