The rate
The standard rate in Nepal is 13%. Some goods and services carry reduced or zero rates and others are exempt. The difference matters: zero-rated sales still let you reclaim the tax on your purchases, exempt sales do not.
13% is the standard rate and was the only one until 2026, when a new gazette power was used to set 5% on ride-sharing platform transport and on domestic electricity above 50 units.
Who must register
Two figures, both measured on the last twelve months' purchases or sales, whichever is higher. NPR 5,000,000 for goods, for hire of transport vehicles and for transport services. NPR 3,000,000 for other services and for a mixed goods-and-services business. Below the line you are a 'small vendor', you need not register, and you must put up a notice at your premises saying so. Cross it, or reach a point where you can reasonably expect to cross it, and you have 30 days to apply on Schedule-1. There is no longer any list of trades that must register whatever their turnover; that list was repealed in 2078. Two threshold-free triggers remain: importing more than NPR 10,000 of taxable goods at one time, and holding stock of taxable goods above the value the Department specifies. Voluntary registration below the threshold is allowed with the tax officer's approval, except for taxpayers who file the presumptive return under Income Tax Act section 4(4). A non-resident supplying electronic services or offline air transport into Nepal must register once its Nepali turnover passes NPR 3,000,000 in twelve months.
Filing and paying
Registered and filed with Inland Revenue Department (IRD).
The tax period is one Bikram Sambat month. File the Schedule-10 return and pay within 25 days of the month end, through the taxpayer portal — and file it even for a month with no taxable transactions at all. Print, electronic and broadcast publishers, and taxpayers with annual turnover up to NPR 10,000,000, may ask the Department to put them on a four-monthly period instead; Finance Act 2083 extended that option to small and medium industries. A four-monthly return is due on the same 25-day rule. Taxpayers in districts with no Inland Revenue Office or Taxpayer Service Office may pay and file at the District Treasury and Comptroller Office by the 15th of the month instead. Any payment over NPR 1,000,000 must go by cheque, draft or electronic transfer. Since Finance Act 2083 a filed return can be corrected within seven days.
Penalties for getting it wrong
Filing late or not at all: 0.05% of the tax due per day, or NPR 1,000 per tax period, whichever is higher. Paying late: an additional fee of 10% a year on the unpaid tax plus interest at 15% a year, both counted from the day that period's payment fell due, and both still running while an administrative review or appeal is pending. No interest is charged on interest, fees or fines. If a return is four months overdue the tax officer can suspend your imports and exports. Trading without registering costs NPR 20,000 each time; failing to issue an invoice costs NPR 10,000 each time, and failing to take one costs the buyer NPR 1,000.