How to file Mushak-9.1 step by step: a monthly VAT return checklist

For a VAT-registered business in Bangladesh, the Mushak-9.1 is the monthly return that summarises what you sold, what you bought, and what VAT is owed or carried forward. It is due by the 15th of the month following the tax period. Most late or wrong returns are not caused by difficult tax law. They are caused by assembling the numbers in a rush on the 13th from three different spreadsheets.

This article is a working checklist: what to prepare, in what order, and which checks catch the errors that cause trouble later. It explains the process; it is not a substitute for the current NBR instructions for the form or for your tax adviser.

What the return is actually made of

Strip away the form layout and the 9.1 is built from four sets of numbers. If these four are right, the return is mostly arithmetic.

• Output VAT: the VAT you charged on taxable supplies in the period, taken from your Mushak-6.3 challans or VAT-bearing invoices
• Input VAT: the VAT you paid on purchases and imports that you are entitled to claim as a rebate, backed by valid purchase documents
• Adjustments: credit notes, returns, price corrections and any VAT deducted at source by your customers or by you
• Opening and closing balance: any VAT credit brought forward from the previous period, and what you carry forward

Step 1: close the period in your books first

Do not start from the return. Start from your accounts. Every sales invoice, purchase bill, credit note and import entry dated within the tax month must be posted, and nothing dated in the next month should be in. If your sales team is still entering last-week invoices when you begin, you are preparing a return you will later have to amend.

A simple rule that works: pick a cut-off day (for example the 5th) by which all documents for the previous month must be entered, and tell the sales, purchase and store teams about it. Anything arriving later is posted in the new month with its true date noted.

Step 2: build the output side

1. 1List every taxable sale in the month with challan number, customer BIN (for registered customers), value excluding VAT, rate and VAT amount.
2. 2Separate supplies by treatment: standard-rated, zero-rated (such as exports), exempt, and any supplied at a reduced or specific rate. Each goes to a different part of the return.
3. 3Check the challan number sequence for gaps. A cancelled challan should still be in the sequence, marked cancelled.
4. 4Subtract credit notes issued in the month, each linked to the original challan.
5. 5Total the value and the VAT. The VAT total should equal the output VAT liability balance in your accounts for the same period.

The standard VAT rate is 15%, so on a clean standard-rated month your output VAT should be very close to 15% of the taxable value. A large unexplained gap usually means a mix of exempt sales, VAT-inclusive prices entered as exclusive, or a missing challan.

Step 3: build the input side

The input side is where most mistakes happen, because an input rebate depends on documents you do not control: your supplier's challan or the customs documents for imports. For each purchase, confirm the supplier's BIN is shown correctly, your own BIN appears as the recipient, and the VAT is stated separately.

• Local purchases: supplier VAT challan with your BIN, matched to the purchase bill in your books
• Imports: the bill of entry and customs payment record, matched to the landed cost entry
• Purchases that do not qualify, such as items the rules do not allow a rebate on or purchases with defective documents, excluded from the claim but still recorded as cost
• Debit and credit notes received from suppliers, which adjust the claim

Step 4: apply withholding and adjustments

If your customers deduct VAT at source when they pay you, or you deduct VAT at source when you pay suppliers, those amounts must be reflected so the cash you actually pay NBR is right. Keep the deduction certificates with the payment records. If you are unsure whether a payment attracts source deduction, the mechanism is covered in our article on VDS and TDS; the rates and categories change, so confirm the current schedule rather than relying on last year's.

Step 5: reconcile before you submit

Three checks, each taking minutes if your books are clean and hours if they are not:

Step 6: file, pay and keep the evidence

Submit the return through the NBR online VAT system following the current instructions, deposit any VAT payable through the prescribed payment channel, and keep the submission acknowledgement and payment proof with the working papers for the month. Aim to finish a few days before the 15th. Portals are busiest at the deadline, and a last-minute error leaves no time to fix it.

Make next month easier

The reason the 9.1 feels painful is usually that the challan, the invoice and the ledger were three separate pieces of work. When the challan is produced from the invoice and the VAT ledgers update as documents are posted, the return becomes a report you review rather than a document you build. Keep a one-page monthly checklist: cut-off date, sequence check, input document check, reconciliation, filing date, payment date. Initial each line. After three months it takes a fraction of the time.