Tax Clearance Certificate in Nepal 2082/83 (2026)

For government tender bidding under the PPMO regime, bank loans, foreign-employee departure, company closure, and several licence and regulatory filings.

A few working days for a clean case; longer where there is an open assessment, audit, or reconciliation gap to resolve before the IRD can issue clearance.

A Tax Clearance Certificate is the Inland Revenue Department's confirmation that a taxpayer has filed all required returns and paid all taxes due for a fiscal year or stated period. It is an attestation of compliance rather than a fresh tax assessment, and other authorities — banks, government procurement, immigration — use it to verify the taxpayer is clean before extending credit, awarding a contract or allowing a person to leave Nepal.

Apply through the IRD taxpayer portal once the income-tax and VAT returns for the relevant fiscal year are filed and any liabilities are cleared. The portal routes the request to the Inland Revenue Office where the taxpayer is registered, and for complex cases the office may require further documents before issuing the certificate. Most routine cases are issued within a few working days through this online route.

Typical documents are the filed income-tax return for the year, VAT returns where applicable, TDS reconciliation, and proof of payment of tax dues, alongside the PAN/VAT certificate and company-registration certificate for a business. A departing foreign employee adds their employer's records and personal tax filings. The exact set is checked by the issuing Inland Revenue Office, and a clean document pack speeds the issue noticeably for a deadline-driven case.

The Inland Revenue Department does not publish a flat statutory fee for the TCC itself, so for most taxpayers the practical "cost" of a TCC is paying any outstanding tax and filing any pending returns, rather than a registration fee. Where fees apply (for example for specific administrative copies), they are determined administratively. To avoid relying on outdated quoted figures, confirm any current charge with the IRD office handling your application.

A TCC certifies a specific fiscal year or stated period, so its practical validity is tied to that period and it is typically renewed annually as the next year's returns are filed. Some authorities require a "current" TCC — meaning one for the most recent closed fiscal year — so a business close to a fiscal-year boundary should plan when to apply. There is no fixed universal validity; the receiving authority decides what counts as current.

Yes. Under Nepal's public procurement regime administered by the Public Procurement Monitoring Office, a current TCC is part of the standard bidding documents alongside VAT registration and proof of tax-return submission. A bidder without a current TCC cannot submit a compliant bid, which is one of the avoidable reasons businesses are knocked out of government tenders. Keeping the TCC current as part of annual closing avoids deadline scrambles.

Yes, in practice. A foreign employee leaving Nepal permanently is expected to obtain tax clearance from the IRD before departure, confirming that personal tax for the period of employment has been settled. This is an administrative requirement applied by the IRD rather than a free-standing visa rule, and the employer typically supports the application with employment and tax records. Take advice early in the departure plan, because the clearance can take time.

Yes. Closing or striking off a company at the Office of Company Registrar typically requires evidence of tax compliance, and a TCC is the standard form of that evidence. The same applies to certain mergers, acquisitions and major restructurings. So a company contemplating closure should plan its final returns and TCC in sequence — completing the filings, clearing dues, obtaining the TCC, then proceeding with the OCR strike-off — rather than treating the TCC as an afterthought.

VAT and income tax are separate filings under separate Acts, but the TCC covers compliance with both — to obtain a TCC, a VAT-registered taxpayer must have filed its monthly (or applicable periodic) VAT returns and paid any VAT due, in addition to filing the income-tax return. So gaps in VAT filing show up at the TCC stage even if income tax is current. Treat VAT and income tax as one compliance bundle for TCC purposes.

An open dispute or assessment typically delays the TCC because the IRD wants the position resolved before issuing clearance. Depending on the matter, the office may issue a conditional certificate, refer to the assessment, or require the dispute to be settled — by payment, adjustment or appeal — before it can issue a clean TCC. If a deadline depends on the TCC, the dispute should be addressed proactively rather than left to be raised at the application stage.

Yes. A sole proprietor (private firm) that holds a PAN and files its income-tax returns can apply for a TCC like any other taxpayer through the IRD taxpayer portal, on the basis of the firm's filings and the proprietor's personal tax position where relevant. Because a sole-proprietorship's tax sits with the individual, ensuring the personal income-tax return is filed alongside any VAT and TDS is the key step before applying.

For most significant bank loans — working-capital lines, term loans, and major credit facilities — banks ask for a current TCC as part of due diligence on the borrower's tax compliance, alongside financial statements and other documents. The exact requirement varies by bank, product and amount, but a settled business should treat the TCC as something it will need at some point in the borrowing process. Keeping it current avoids a loan-application delay.

Yes. A foreign-invested company registered in Nepal is a Nepali taxpayer for these purposes — it holds a PAN, files income-tax and VAT returns, and applies for a TCC through the same IRD process as any other company. Foreign-investment compliance (for example FITTA and Nepal Rastra Bank approvals) sits alongside the tax filings rather than replacing them, and the TCC is often relevant to dividend repatriation and other foreign-exchange transactions.

No. A TCC certifies the state of filings and payments at the time it is issued, on the basis of what the IRD has reviewed. It does not extinguish the IRD's power to reopen a period under the Income Tax Act 2058 within the prescribed limitation if new information arises — for example, on audit or following a tax investigation. So the TCC is best understood as a compliance attestation for current administrative purposes, not as a permanent immunity from later review.

The IRD's website provides a tax-clearance search facility, which allows interested parties to check the status of a particular taxpayer's TCC, alongside its PAN status, through the IRD portal. Business counterparties and procurement bodies often use this to verify that a bidder or supplier has a current TCC, which is part of the transparency design of the system. For your own status, log into the taxpayer portal where the issued certificate is also recorded.

Yes. The PAN certificate confirms registration as a taxpayer (the identity step) and is permanent. The TCC certifies compliance for a fiscal year — that returns are filed and taxes paid — and is renewed annually. So a business will hold one PAN over its life but a series of TCCs across its years of operation. Both come from the IRD, but they answer different questions, and many official requirements ask for both.

When the underlying filings are messy or contested — an open IRD assessment, a disputed TDS demand, multi-year unreconciled returns, a departing-foreign-employee case — and when the TCC is tied to a fixed deadline such as a tender or visa exit. A lawyer or tax adviser closes the filings, resolves the assessment with IRD, and gets the TCC issued in time. Catching gaps early, well ahead of the deadline, is what avoids a missed tender or a delayed departure.