Role of Tax Amnesty in Ensuring Voluntary Compliance: The Case of Income Tax in Bangladesh

Like many other developing countries, compliance in the field of income tax is a burning issue and poses a
formidable challenge for the income tax administration in Bangladesh. One way of ensuring voluntary compliance
is to allow a tax amnesty scheme used around the world to improve compliance. Bangladesh also uses this tool to
improve voluntary compliance. This paper argues that though tax amnesty temporarily augments revenue
collection, in the long turn it does not. Particularly, in Bangladesh, tax amnesty schemes are used, inter alia, for
ulterior motive of whitening black money held by politicians and businessmen.