IRD status, checked 8 October 2026: Retriever software approval is pending. A PAN, VAT line or invoice number does not make its output an IRD-approved electronic bill. Use an enlisted billing system with your required business permission for legal e-billing. Retriever’s IRD connection is Off/Test only. Read the requirements and where Retriever fits.
IRD अवस्था: रिट्रिभरको स्वीकृति अझै प्राप्त भएको छैन। PAN, VAT वा बिल नम्बर छापिँदैमा स्वीकृत विद्युतीय बीजक हुँदैन। कानूनी विद्युतीय बिलिङका लागि सूचीकृत प्रणाली र व्यवसायको अनुमति प्रयोग गर्नुहोस्। रिट्रिभरको IRD सुविधा Off/Test मा मात्र छ।
A customer asks for a bill and the owner freezes, because the word bill in Nepal is doing three jobs at once. Sometimes it means a piece of paper. Sometimes it means a PAN bill. Sometimes it means a VAT invoice with 13 percent added on top. They are not the same document, and charging the third one when you only have the first is how a small shop creates a tax it cannot pay.
This is the distinction, as the Acts stood when this was written, for fiscal year 2082/83. Finance Acts move these numbers. Before you register, or before you start adding 13 percent, read the current text on ird.gov.np or ask your own accountant. A blog is not a ruling.
A PAN is who you are
A permanent account number is the Inland Revenue Department's way of knowing which person or firm a transaction belongs to. The Income Tax Act, 2058, section 78, is the section that creates it. The Department can require a person to obtain one before transacting, and the same section says that not having a PAN does not free anyone from the tax. In practice a shop that wants a merchant QR, a business bank line, or a bill another business will accept gets a PAN early. It is the number, not a permission to charge VAT.
Retriever's printed document label depends on whether a sale is paid, the shop has a PAN on file and the sale has a number in the shop's series. Without those fields it says Payment receipt. These are product checks, not IRD approval: even an output labelled Tax invoice is not evidence of an approved electronic bill. While Retriever's approval is pending, use an enlisted system with the required business permission for legal electronic tax billing.
A VAT bill is a different registration
Value added tax is the Value Added Tax Act, 2052. The rate in force is 13 percent. Registration is not automatic with a PAN.
Section 11, as amended by the Finance Act, 2081, sets the line on a rolling twelve months of taxable turnover. The Asia Ref consolidation of the Act quotes the amended words directly: fifty lakh rupees (NPR 5,000,000) for goods, and thirty lakh rupees (NPR 3,000,000) for services or for a mix of goods and services. The old twenty lakh figure for services is what that amendment replaced. Several 2026 guides still print the old number. Do not use it.
| Trade | Mandatory VAT, past 12 months |
|---|---|
| Goods only | Above NPR 50,00,000 |
| Services, or goods and services together | Above NPR 30,00,000 |
The Act also tells a person who crosses the line to apply within thirty days. Some trades are told to register from the first sale no matter how small they are. Electronics is often named in that company, along with liquor and several professional services. The list is an IRD matter, and it moves, so the sentence to take to your accountant is "is my trade on the current compulsory list?" and not a sentence from this page.
Below the line, a PAN bill with no VAT on it is the ordinary document. Adding 13 percent because it looks more official collects a tax you are not registered to remit. That is worse than a plain bill.
The small-shop income tax is a third thing
PAN, VAT and how you compute income tax are three doors. PKF T R Upadhya and Co's tax card for 2082/83 describes the presumptive scheme for a resident natural person whose taxable business income does not exceed NPR 3,00,000 and whose business turnover does not exceed NPR 30,00,000, and a turnover-based scheme above that up to NPR 1,00,00,000 of turnover with taxable business income under NPR 10,00,000. Those are income-tax computations. They do not replace a PAN, and they are not the VAT threshold. A kirana can be inside the presumptive band and still be nowhere near a VAT registration.
What to put on the counter this week
Confirm the billing arrangement required for your registration with your accountant or registered tax office. A non-VAT-registered business must not collect VAT. VAT registration brings its own invoice and return requirements, alongside any electronic-billing permission. Retriever does not file your VAT return, and its PAN/number checks or VAT setting do not make it an approved electronic billing system. Keep your authorised billing arrangement while Retriever's approval is pending.
The longer billing piece is what a counter needs. Whether you must register the firm at all is a separate decision. When the Finance Act moves the fifty lakh or the thirty lakh, this page should move with it.