Why Pay to File Your Sri Lanka Income Tax Return When You Can Do It Free?
TL;DR: Preparing your Sri Lankan income tax return does not need a paid subscription. Paid return services charge a yearly subscription — and even then, you file the return yourself on the IRD portal. ganna.lk’s free tax model does the same core job: a guided flow through income, reliefs, tax and credits, every figure mapped to its cage on the IRD return, plus foreign income, a Statement of Assets, what-if checks and second-look flags. Free, no sign-up, and your figures never leave your device. Try the free return helper →
If you earn a salary, interest, rent or freelance income in Sri Lanka, you have to file an income tax return — and the return for the year of assessment 2025/2026 is due on 30 November 2026. The question is not whether to prepare it, but what to pay for the preparation. Here is what the paid services charge, what the free model does instead, and where the free one honestly falls short.
What the paid services charge
The best-known paid return service in Sri Lanka, TaxWise, charges a yearly subscription for return preparation: a Free tier that covers salary and bank interest only, then paid tiers that cover savings, investments and freelance income. Its key feature is document upload — you upload your bank statement, T-10 and interest certificates, and it reads them and sorts every line. But one thing it does not do is file for you: you still submit the return yourself on the IRD e-Filing portal. What you are paying for is the preparation, not the filing.
What the free model does
ganna.lk’s free tax model, at /tax-return, walks you through the same return in four steps — and it is free for everything, not just salary and interest:
- Income — salary, interest, dividends, rent, capital gains, business and freelance income, and foreign income (converted at the live CBSL rate, taxed at most 15%).
- Reliefs — the Rs. 1.8 million personal relief, 25% rent upkeep, the Rs. 600,000 solar relief, and charity (capped at the lower of what you gave, Rs. 75,000, or a third of taxable income).
- Tax — the 2025/2026 slabs (6%, 18%, 24%, 30%, 36%), gains at 10%, and the foreign income cap — with every figure shown next to its cage number on the IRD return.
- Credits and result — APIT, advance income tax and instalments, then the balance to pay or the refund to claim, with the full working shown.
On top of that: a Statement of Assets that reconciles your net worth against your income, tax and living expenses; what-if checks (try a bigger donation and see the saving); and a second-look panel that flags things worth checking, like an APIT figure that does not match 12 months of your monthly APIT.
| What you get | ganna.lk (free) | Paid service (TaxWise) |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Rs. 0 | A yearly subscription |
| Guided return flow | Yes | Yes |
| IRD cage numbers on every figure | Yes | Yes |
| Foreign income at CBSL rate | Yes | Yes |
| Statement of Assets | Yes | Yes |
| What-if simulations | Yes | Yes |
| Document upload (reads your PDFs) | No — you type the figures | Yes |
| Files the return for you | No — you file it | No — you file it |
| Your data | Stays on your device | Stored on their servers |
| Sign-up | None | Account needed |
The one real gap is document upload: the free model has no servers and no AI reading your PDFs, so you type the figures from your own certificates (your T-10, your interest certificates). That is the trade-off for free and private — and typing four or five figures from certificates you already hold takes a few minutes.
A worked example
A salary of Rs. 3.6 million plus Rs. 200,000 bank interest, with Rs. 222,000 APIT already deducted by the employer and Rs. 20,000 advance tax deducted by the bank:
| Step | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total income (salary + interest) | Rs. 3,800,000 |
| Less personal relief | Rs. 1,800,000 |
| Taxable income | Rs. 2,000,000 |
| Tax: 6% on Rs. 1,000,000 + 18% on Rs. 500,000 + 24% on Rs. 500,000 | Rs. 270,000 |
| Less credits (APIT Rs. 222,000 + advance tax Rs. 20,000) | Rs. 242,000 |
| Balance to pay | Rs. 28,000 |
That is exactly what the free tool shows for the same figures — with the cage numbers beside each line, so you can copy them straight onto the IRD return. Try it with your own figures →
How to do it in three steps
- Work it out free. Open the return helper and type your figures from your certificates — salary from your T-10, interest from your bank certificates, APIT from your payslips. No sign-up, nothing uploaded.
- Copy each figure into its cage. The result shows every figure with its schedule and cage number (salary to cage 10, reliefs to cages 60–110, tax to cages 120–170, credits to cage 180). The cage numbers come from the IRD’s own return and schedules forms.
- File on the IRD portal by 30 November 2026. Sign in to the IRD e-Services portal with your TIN, enter the figures in the cages shown, and submit. Filing online is mandatory — and it is the same step whether you prepared the return free or paid for it.
Frequently asked questions
Is it really free?
Yes. Every tax tool on ganna.lk is free — there is no Pro tier for tax, no sign-up, and no payment anywhere in the flow. The free model covers salary, interest, rent, gains, business and foreign income, not just salary and interest.
Does it file my return for me?
No — and neither does the paid service. Both prepare the figures; you file the return yourself on the IRD e-Filing portal. The free tool gives you every figure with its cage number, so the filing step is copying numbers into boxes.
Is my data safe?
Your figures never leave your device. There is no account, no upload, and nothing stored on a server — the calculation happens in your own browser. A paid service stores your return on its servers by design.
What if I earn in dollars or freelance?
Foreign income is converted at the live CBSL indicative buy rate and taxed at most 15%. Business and freelance income go in as simple totals. The free model covers all of these; the paid service’s free tier does not.
What does it cost me versus TaxWise?
Rs. 0, against a yearly subscription — for the same core preparation job. The paid price buys document upload and a stored account; the free model trades those for privacy and zero cost.
General information only, not tax advice. The figures are estimates based on published IRD rates and forms for the year of assessment 2025/2026. Confirm your position with the IRD or a tax professional, and check the figures against your own certificates.