How to file income tax online in Nepal: an IRD taxpayer-portal walkthrough

A friend who freelances on Upwork asked the question that prompted this post: "The bank deducted 5% on my last USD inward. Am I supposed to log into the IRD portal too, or is that it?" A second friend, salaried at a single employer, fully TDS'd: "My HR keeps asking if I filed. Do I need to?"

Two different people. Two correct answers, both different from what you'd guess. The Nepali income tax system separates who must file from what the employer withheld, and most of the confusion lives in that gap. This post is a walkthrough of the IRD taxpayer portal at taxpayerportal.ird.gov.np: who has to use it, which of the three personal return forms fits, the deductions worth claiming, and the deadline that catches the unlucky.

Who actually needs to file

Nepali tax law assumes most salaried people will not file. The employer is the collection agent under Section 87 of Income Tax Act 2058, projecting your annual income and remitting monthly TDS. If that withholding is correct and complete, the return is redundant for the IRD.

The exemption test is in Section 4 / Section 96 read together. A natural person is exempt from filing when all of the following are true:

Condition	Threshold
Income source	Salary only, from one employer in the same income year
Annual remuneration	Up to Rs 40,00,000 (source: rsa.com.np FY 2082/83 tax fact)
TDS	Correctly withheld and remitted by the employer under Section 87
Other income	None — no rental, no NPR freelance, no interest above PAN-disclosure thresholds, no NEPSE capital gains, no foreign-currency digital export beyond the 5% bank withholding

Fail any one of those, and filing becomes mandatory. The most common triggers:

• Two employers in one income year. Quit in Mangsir, joined a new place in Poush. Both employers project annual TDS as if their salary is your only salary, so the year-end aggregate is under-withheld. The return reconciles it and produces a payable amount.
• NPR freelance or domestic side income. Anything paid by a Nepali client in rupees is slab-taxed and must be aggregated. The 5% scheme covered in the freelance side-income post handles foreign-currency lanes, but domestic NPR income joins your salary slabs.
• Rental income on a flat or shop. Rental TDS by the tenant does not substitute for the personal return when the landlord is a natural person.
• NEPSE capital gains outside the broker's 5%/7.5% withholding. Rare for retail, common for active traders.
• Salary > Rs 40 lakh in one year. The threshold is salary, not gross including bonus; the Dashain bonus post covers the way festival expense interacts with annual TDS.

For everyone else, filing is the IRD-mandated thing to do once a year. The portal makes it survivable.

The three forms, decoded

The taxpayer portal asks you to pick a return form when you start. The three available to natural persons are D-01, D-02, and D-03, and the difference is just the scale of your business or professional income.

Form	Who uses it	Income basis	Threshold
D-01	Presumptive (very small) taxpayer under Section 4(4)	Flat tax: Rs 7,500 (Metropolitan/Sub-metro), Rs 4,000 (Municipality), Rs 2,500 (other)	Turnover ≤ Rs 30,00,000 and net income ≤ Rs 3,00,000; professionals (lawyer, doctor, CA, engineer, etc.) excluded
D-02	Turnover-based small business (transactional method)	Percentage of turnover (typically 0.25%–2% by sector)	Turnover Rs 30 lakh to Rs 1 crore and net income ≤ Rs 10 lakh
D-03	Actual-basis self-assessment	Slab tax on net profit / assessable income	Anyone above the D-02 caps, including all salary + side-income mixed cases

BizSewa's D-01 checklist and Khata Academy's 5-tax-returns guide both walk through the eligibility logic in more detail. For most readers of this blog (salaried, with one or two side gigs), D-03 is the default. D-01 fits a tea-shop owner more than a software freelancer. D-02 fits a small trading or consulting outfit that has crossed presumptive but stayed under Rs 1 crore turnover.

A note for foreign-currency freelancers under the 5% scheme: the 5% withheld by the bank on inward remittance is treated as final tax for natural persons. The return is technically optional on that stream alone, but filing creates a paper trail that simplifies any future IRD query and is a near-zero-cost insurance policy.

The walkthrough: portal to submitted return

The portal lives at taxpayerportal.ird.gov.np. The flow for D-03 is roughly the same for salaried-with-side-income filers, freelancers, and small consultants. Allow 30–45 minutes the first time, ten on every renewal.

1. Get your personal PAN ready. If you only have a business PAN through a sole proprietorship, the personal PAN is the right login. Don't have one? Register free at the portal or the Nagarik App: citizenship copy, photo, mobile OTP, 1–3 working days. The card itself is free; agents who charge Rs 500–1,500 are selling convenience, not the card.
2. Log in. Username is the 9-digit PAN. Password is what you set at registration (forgot-password flow uses the mobile number on file).
3. Gather what you need. Annual salary statement from each employer (the year-end TDS certificate), bank statements for any interest credited, TDS certificates from clients who paid you, life and health insurance premium receipts, CIT contribution summary if you topped up beyond the payroll line, and your bank's withholding statement if you have foreign-currency inward.
4. Navigate to Income Tax → D-03 Return Entry. The portal walks you through six tabs in order: basic information, employment income, business/profession income, investment income, deductions, and tax computation.
5. Fill the employment tab. Pull figures directly from the year-end TDS certificate (Form D-7 or its current equivalent issued by the employer). Annual remuneration, allowances, festival expense, retirement contribution deducted, tax already paid via TDS. The portal computes the assessable income automatically.
6. Fill the business / profession tab. Aggregate domestic NPR freelance receipts. Add a row per client if you want; one consolidated row is acceptable as long as you keep invoices and bank credits available for any future query. The portal accepts net of GST/VAT if VAT-registered. Foreign-currency 5% final-tax income goes here as exempt income with the 5% noted separately.
7. Investment income tab. Bank interest above the disclosure threshold, NEPSE dividends (already taxed at 5%), bond/debenture interest, rental income, capital gains on property or shares not already taxed at source.
8. Deductions tab. This is the only place you can pull a refund. Life insurance premium up to Rs 40,000, health insurance up to Rs 20,000, and approved retirement contributions (SSF or PF + CIT) up to the lower of one-third of assessable income or Rs 5,00,000 per the Insurance Khabar / FY 2082/83 confirmation. If the deductions were already applied at source by payroll, enter them again on the return; the portal cross-checks and avoids double-counting.
9. Tax computation tab. The portal applies the FY 2082/83 slabs and computes tax payable. Compare against total TDS already remitted. If TDS > tax, you have a refund. If TDS < tax, the portal generates a challan to pay the balance via ConnectIPS, eSewa, or bank counter using the voucher number generated.
10. Submit, then print. The portal issues an acknowledgement with a barcode. Save the PDF. That acknowledgement is your filing proof for the next four years (statute of limitations on personal returns).

A polished walk-through with screenshots lives at estartupnepal.com's IRD filing guide and at taxadvisornepal.com for the visual-learner reader.

Deductions worth claiming

Filing is the only opportunity to recover excess TDS, so the deductions tab is where careful work pays back. The big four for natural persons:

Deduction	FY 2082/83 cap	Source
Life insurance premium	Rs 40,000/year	Insurance Khabar
Health insurance premium	Rs 20,000/year	Notary Nepal
Approved retirement (SSF / PF + CIT combined)	Lower of 1/3 of assessable income or Rs 5,00,000	RSA tax fact PDF
Donation to approved tax-exempt entities	5% of assessable income or Rs 1,00,000 (lower)	Baker Tilly individual taxation

The CIT lever specifically is what the CIT vs PF vs SSF post covers. A mid-year top-up to CIT before Ashad end recomputes the year's deduction, and if your payroll team did not pick up the higher figure, filing the return is how you get back the over-withheld tax. The refund typically lands in the bank linked to the PAN within 30–60 days of submission.

Items people often think are deductible but are not, for natural persons: house rent paid, school fees for children, transport, medical expenses outside insurance, EMI interest on a home loan (the home loan principal does not get a separate deduction either; Nepal does not run a Section 80C-style omnibus deduction).

Deadlines and what late costs you

Three months after fiscal year end is the rule in Section 96. FY 2082/83 ends Ashad end 2083 (mid-July 2026), so the standard deadline is Ashoj end 2083 (mid-October 2026) for the personal return.

The IRD has historically extended this. Recent years saw the deadline pushed to 25 Ashoj for sole proprietorships, with further extensions for businesses up to Mangsir and Poush end depending on category. Treat the extension as luck; plan for Ashoj end.

Late filing under Section 117 is steeper than most filers realise. For a non-presumptive natural person, the fee is the higher of 1.5% per year of assessable income (calculated on a monthly basis) or Rs 1,000 per month of delay, per Investopaper's compliance summary. For a salaried filer with Rs 12 lakh assessable income, 1.5% per year is Rs 18,000 per year, comfortably above Rs 1,000 × 12 = Rs 12,000; the percentage formula wins. For a freelancer with Rs 40 lakh assessable, 1.5% is Rs 60,000 per year. Presumptive D-01 filers under Section 4(4) pay a much smaller flat Rs 100 per month.

Section 119 separately charges interest on unpaid tax at the "normal rate of interest", which sources consistently put at 15% per annum for FY 2082/83. The two costs stack: the late-filing fee runs in parallel with the interest on the underlying tax bill. The DARTA Nepal fine calculator is the easiest way to estimate damage on a specific case.

A written extension request can be filed under Section 98 before the original due date; the IRD has discretion to grant up to three additional months. The request is free but rarely granted post-deadline without a documented reason (medical, abroad, employer dispute).

Stuck-points the portal throws at people

Five common errors and what they actually mean:

• OTP not arriving. The portal sends OTP only to the mobile number registered against the PAN. If you changed your number after PAN registration, you have to update it at your local IRD office in person; the portal does not support self-service mobile updates for natural persons.
• "Invalid PAN" on login. Personal PAN is 9 digits. Business PANs are also 9 digits but the portal flags it if you try to file a natural-person return against a business PAN. Use the personal PAN.
• Browser issues. The portal works best on Chrome and Firefox. Safari sometimes blocks the print/save acknowledgement step. The portal is not mobile-responsive; use a desktop.
• TDS not showing in pre-filled employment tab. The employer's TDS schedule for the year may not have been filed at IRD by the time you file. The portal then asks you to enter the figures manually from the year-end certificate. Save a copy; if a query lands later, the certificate is the proof.
• Submit button greyed out. Usually one tab is incomplete. The portal does not always highlight which. Click through every tab once, look for empty mandatory fields (red asterisks), and the submit button reactivates.

If you hit something the FAQ cannot resolve, the IRD help desk at the Lazimpat head office takes walk-ins and email queries. A local tax consultant typically charges Rs 2,000–5,000 to file a single natural-person return including any back-and-forth; for first-time filers with mixed income it is often worth the fee just to see the right boxes get ticked once.

What you actually need to know

Three takeaways:

1. Most salaried Nepalis do not need to file. Single employer, salary up to Rs 40 lakh, correct TDS = no return required. Side income, two employers in one year, rental, NEPSE gains, or salary above Rs 40 lakh = filing is mandatory.
2. D-03 is the default for everyone reading this who has to file. D-01 and D-02 fit small traders, not salaried + side-income cases. Pick D-03 and use the deductions tab carefully. That's where any refund lives.
3. Ashoj end is the date that matters. The penalty under Section 117 is small in absolute terms but the interest under Section 119 is not. Filing late on a return with a payable tax bill is the expensive version; filing late on a return that would have produced a refund is just the refund delayed.

This post is part of the Nepal Money Basics guide — the Earn More and Reconcile the Tax section.

Questions on a specific situation (multiple employers, freelance + salary reconciliation, refund stuck after submission): email parjanya57@gmail.com.