Before you start

A Permanent Account Number from the Inland Revenue Department
A day count against a rolling 365-day window, not a fiscal year
Employment contract and salary records
A Nepali bank account

Step-by-step

1
Understand the rolling 365-day window
You are a resident natural person if your normal place of abode is Nepal, or if you are present for 183 days or more in any period of 365 consecutive days ending in the income year. That is a rolling window, not a fiscal-year count, and it means the answer can change mid-year in a way a fiscal-year test does not allow.
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2
Obtain a PAN before you receive any taxable income
Anyone commencing business, a profession or employment in Nepal must obtain a Permanent Account Number from the IRD beforehand. Employers require it and it is the precondition for everything else, including the tax-compliance evidence you will need to repatriate salary.
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3
Note that the Nepali fiscal year is not the Gregorian one
Nepal's income year runs on the Bikram Sambat calendar, from mid-July to mid-July in Gregorian terms — Shrawan to Ashad. Deadlines, filings and salary tax cycles all follow that calendar. Learn to read a BS date, because official communications will use it.
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4
Let the employer withhold, then check the position
Employers withhold tax at source on salary and remit it. That does not automatically settle every obligation, particularly if you have income from more than one source or foreign income within scope as a resident. Ask your employer for the withholding statements and keep them.
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5
Keep tax-compliance evidence for the repatriation file
Repatriating expatriate remuneration rests in part on evidence of tax compliance. Tax receipts and withholding statements are therefore not just a tax matter — they are part of the file your bank will ask for when you want to send money home.
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6
Check the treaty position if you are taxed elsewhere
Nepal has a limited double taxation treaty network compared with larger economies. Whether one covers your home country materially changes the answer for foreign income, and the absence of one is itself important information. Establish this in your first year rather than assuming relief exists.
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Documents you’ll need

PAN certificate
Employment contract and withholding statements
Bank statements
Records of any foreign income and foreign tax paid
Tax receipts, retained for the repatriation file

Things most newcomers don’t know

The 183 days run over any rolling 365-day period, not over a fiscal year.

Under the Income Tax Act a natural person is resident if their normal place of abode is in Nepal, or if they are present for 183 days or more in any period of 365 consecutive days ending in the income year. That rolling formulation is materially different from Pakistan's 183 days within a July–June tax year or Bangladesh's 182 days within an income year — a distinction that is easy to miss when moving between countries in the same region. Someone splitting time across two Nepali fiscal years can be resident under Nepal's test and non-resident under a fiscal-year one on identical facts.

Source: Inland Revenue Department; Income Tax Act 2058

The fiscal year runs on the Bikram Sambat calendar, mid-July to mid-July.

Nepal's income year is Shrawan to Ashad in the Bikram Sambat calendar, which corresponds to roughly mid-July to mid-July in Gregorian terms — and the exact Gregorian dates shift slightly year to year. Deadlines, notices and filing periods are all expressed in BS dates. Anyone administering their own affairs here should learn to read them, because a Gregorian-only mental model will produce dates that are a fortnight wrong in either direction.

Source: Inland Revenue Department

The PAN comes before income, not after, and it feeds the repatriation file.

Nepali law requires anyone commencing employment, business or a profession to obtain a Permanent Account Number from the IRD before receiving taxable income. Beyond the obvious tax function, the PAN and the tax receipts that follow it are part of the evidence a bank requires to repatriate expatriate remuneration abroad. Treating tax registration as a chore to complete eventually creates a problem you meet at the end of the posting, when it is hardest to fix.

Source: Inland Revenue Department; Nepal Rastra Bank

Nepal's double taxation treaty network is thin, and the gap is not academic.

Nepal has treaties with a relatively small number of countries compared with larger economies in the region. If your home country is not among them, foreign income taxed in both places may not attract treaty relief, and the domestic foreign tax credit rules become the only mechanism. This is the sort of thing people assume is covered because it usually is elsewhere. Check whether a treaty exists for your specific country before assuming relief, ideally before you accept a posting with significant foreign income.

Source: Inland Revenue Department

Common mistakes to avoid

Applying a fiscal-year residency test when Nepal's runs on a rolling 365-day window.
Reading deadlines in Gregorian dates when the official calendar is Bikram Sambat.
Starting employment before obtaining a PAN.
Discarding tax receipts that the bank will later require for repatriation.
Assuming a double taxation treaty covers your country without checking.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.