Getting the new Quarterly Tax Instalment formula right | Daily FT

Ft · 🇱🇰 public Sri Lanka · Aug 10, 2026 · 2391 words

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What to know about Getting the new Quarterly Tax Instalment formula right

Wednesday Aug 26, 2026 Monday, 10 August 2026 00:20 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}} On 6 August 2026, the Inland Revenue Department issued Circular No.

Claims checked 27

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center83%

Right17%

6 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Wednesday Aug 26, 2026 Monday, 10 August 2026 00:20 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}} On 6 August 2026, the Inland Revenue Department issued Circular No.

Why it matters

SEC/2026/E/06 (Revised), replacing a version issued just three days earlier.

Common ground

The revised circular provides detailed guidance on calculating quarterly income tax instalments under Section 90 of the Inland Revenue Act, No.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What concrete event or decision sits underneath the headline: Getting the new Quarterly Tax Instalment formula right?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that Every instalment... is ultimately computed using one formula: (A − C) ÷ B?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.ft.lk/opinion/Getting-the-new-Quarterly-Tax-Instalment-formula-right…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 27 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

schedule Pending 17

check_circle Corroborated 4

info Single Source 3

verified Verified 3

info

Claim 1: “Every instalment... is ultimately computed using one formula: (A − C) ÷ B”

SINGLE SOURCE

While multiple sources mention a formula, the specific mathematical expression '(A - C) / B' is not explicitly written out in the provided evidence snippets, though 'Instant Tax Solutions' mentions the components of the formula.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Individuals deriving employment income, rental income, or interest income already subject to AIT/WHT are not required to make installment payments or submit statements. Taxpayers are strongly encourag…
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jmfazeer_ird-circular-activit…

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web search NEUTRAL — The circular introduces a straightforward formula for calculating quarterly instalmentsC = Tax already paid through previous instalments, Withholding Tax (WHT), Advance Income Tax (AIT), and eligible …
https://www.taxadvisor.lk/article/san

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web search NEUTRAL — IRD has issued revised guidance on calculating quarterly income tax instalments from the Year of Assessment 2026/2027, following amendments to the Inland Revenue Act.
https://regfollower.com/sri-lanka-ird-issues-revised-guidanc…

schedule

Claim 2: “Method 3... a formal written petition, addressed... directly to the Commissioner – Tax Policy and Legislation Unit... seeking to use some other reasonable method”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 3: “New registrants using this estimation privilege must submit Attachment 2 rather than Attachment 1.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 4: “Where losses carried forward are heavy enough that a business genuinely expects to report no taxable income again this year, A is simply treated as zero and no instalment is payable... the taxpayer must still file a formal declaration on the prescribed form, Attachment 1”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

verified

Claim 5: “B is the number of instalments still remaining for the year, counting the one currently being calculated.”

VERIFIED

The 'Daily FT' source explicitly defines B as 'the number of instalments still remaining for the year, counting the one currently being calculated'.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — B is the number of instalments still remaining for the year, counting the one currently being calculated. It therefore changes through the year: B is 4 for the August instalment, 3 for November, 2 for…
https://www.ft.lk/columns/Getting-the-new-Quarterly-Tax-Inst…

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web search NEUTRAL — 00:06:11 - Instalment Formula: Equating the Principal amount with the present value of equal instalments. 00:07:43 - Alternative Formula: Comparing Future Values of the Loan and the Instalments (Prefe…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8eKujeQQuc

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web search NEUTRAL — For calculation purposes, it's divided by 100 to convert it to a decimal form in the formula. (n) is the number of installments or periods across which the loan is repaid.
https://testbook.com/question-answer/the-formula-for-finding…

info

Claim 6: “On 6 August 2026, the Inland Revenue Department issued Circular No. SEC/2026/E/06 (Revised), replacing a version issued just three days earlier.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The 'Daily FT' web result explicitly mentions Circular SEC/2026/E/06 (Revised) replacing a version issued three days earlier. However, no other independent source confirms the specific date of August 6, 2026.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Pakistan Customs (پاکستان کسٹمز) is one of the cadres of the Civil Services of Pakistan. It is staffed by officers from the Pakistan Customs Service (PCS) which is one of the premier occupational grou…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan_Customs

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The first revenue stamps in the United States were used briefly during colonial times, among the most notable usage involved the Stamp Act. Long after independence, the first revenue stamps printed by…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_stamps_of_the_United_S…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Stamp duty is a tax that is levied on single property purchases or documents (including, historically, the majority of legal documents such as cheques, receipts, military commissions, marriage licence…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamp_duty

+ 3 more evidence sources

schedule

Claim 7: “Scenario II... the taxpayer must reconstruct last year’s figures as if the losses or exemptions that shielded them had never applied, and calculate what the gross tax would have been on that reconstructed basis, using current tax rates.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 8: “the circular asks taxpayers to file a Credit Schedule... The filing deadline tracks the instalment calendar, falling due at the end of the month in which each instalment is payable: 31 August, 30 November, 28 or 29 February, and 31 May.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 9: “C... picks up three things: any instalments already paid earlier in the year, Withholding Tax (WHT) or Advance Income Tax (AIT) already deducted (or reasonably expected to be deducted) at source, and any foreign tax credit available under Section 80 of the Act.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

verified

Claim 10: “B is 4 for the August instalment, 3 for November, 2 for February, and 1 for May.”

VERIFIED

The 'Daily FT' source explicitly states: 'B is 4 for the August instalment, 3 for November, 2 for February, and 1 for May'.

verified

Claim 11: “the first instalment for Year of Assessment 2026/2027 falls due this month [August 2026]... the pressing date is 15 August”

VERIFIED

The source 'Understanding the Revised IRD Circular...' explicitly states the 1st Instalment is due 'On or before August 15th of the Year of Assessment'.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — 2021 (MMXXI) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2021st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 21st year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — On 6 August 2024, during the Russo-Ukrainian war, the Armed Forces of Ukraine launched an incursion into Russia's Kursk Oblast and clashed with the Russian Armed Forces and Russian border guard. A sta…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kursk_campaign

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a standardised test in Australia that assesses students’ reading, writing, language, and numeracy skills. It is designed to assess t…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAPLAN

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 12: “Section 90 fixes four instalment dates for every year of assessment”

CORROBORATED

The 'Understanding the Revised IRD Circular...' source explicitly lists the statutory deadlines for quarterly instalments (August, November, February, May), confirming four fixed dates per year of assessment under Section 90.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Inland Revenue Act 1880 (43 & 44 Vict. c. 20) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that repealed the duties on malt, granted and altered certain duties of inland revenue, and amended…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inland_Revenue_Act_1880

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Inland Revenue Repeal Act 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 99) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that repealed various enactments relating to duty taxes in the United Kingdom from 1764 to 1…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inland_Revenue_Repeal_Act_1870

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and for administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_Revenue_Service

+ 3 more evidence sources

schedule

Claim 13: “A taxpayer paying instalments under Method 1 who comes to reasonably expect that this year’s taxable income will fall below last year’s... may notify the CDMU... and move onto Method 2 or Method 3 for the remaining instalments.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 14: “Taxpayers who... prepare accounts on a 12-month period that does not align with the standard year of assessment are not exempted from any of the above”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 15: “the circular carves out an Alternative Basis for taxpayers who meet either of two gateway conditions: they had no taxable income at all in the immediately preceding year, or they can reasonably project that this year’s taxable income will be lower than last year’s.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 16: “Where an individual’s income is derived solely from employment and is fully captured through Advance Personal Income Tax deducted by the employer, no quarterly instalments and no credit schedule are required at all.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 17: “A person estimating A for instalment purposes may take into account a foreign tax credit available under Section 80 of the Act, but only where the foreign tax has already been paid, or is reasonably expected to be paid, during the year.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 18: “Scenario IV... The circular permits these taxpayers [newly registered] to estimate their taxable income for their first operational year and apply current rates to that projection, but only for that first year.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 19: “For taxpayers using either of the alternative estimation methods under Method 2, Attachment 1 or Attachment 2 must reach the CDMU, Metro Office, or relevant Regional Office by 15 August”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 20: “The revised circular provides detailed guidance on calculating quarterly income tax instalments under Section 90 of the Inland Revenue Act, No. 24 of 2017, as amended by Act No. 11 of 2026”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent web sources (Daily FT, 'Understanding the Revised IRD Circular...', and 'Circular on Calculating Quarterly Income Tax Instalments') confirm that the circular provides guidance on quarterly income tax instalments under Section 90 of the Inland Revenue Act, No. 24 of 2017.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Circular economy (CE), or circularity, is a model of resource production and consumption that involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and recycling materials and products, to exte…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_economy

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The legal working age is the minimum age required by law in each country or jurisdiction for a person to be allowed to work. Activities that are dangerous, harmful to the health or that may affect the…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_working_age

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — In mathematics, the trigonometric functions (also called circular functions, angle functions or goniometric functions) are real functions which relate an angle of a right-angled triangle to ratios of …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigonometric_functions

+ 3 more evidence sources

info

Claim 21: “A is the gross income tax payable on the taxable income of the immediately preceding year of assessment.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The provided evidence mentions the existence of a formula and its components (like tax already paid), but does not explicitly define 'A' as the gross income tax payable on the taxable income of the preceding year.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Calculating taxable income, tax payable, and average tax rate based on provided financial information and relevant tax legislation.
https://studyx.ai/questions/4lq8xv1/1-2-calculate-mbali-s-ta…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Home » Tax Rates » Income Tax » Rates of Tax for Individuals.The Budget tax guide 2026 will be published on 25 February 2026 when the Minister of Finance delivers his budget speech – keep an eye on th…
https://www.sars.gov.za/tax-rates/income-tax/rates-of-tax-fo…

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web search NEUTRAL — e-Filing of Income Tax Return or Forms and other value added services & Intimation, Rectification, Refund and other Income Tax Processing Related Queries.
https://www.incometax.gov.in/

schedule

Claim 22: “Scenario III... the circular allows the prior year’s tax to be recalculated with the income streams that are not expected to recur stripped out.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 23: “The notification deadlines [for mid-year revisions] are... the last day of the month preceding the relevant instalment due date: To revise the November instalment — notify by 31 October; To revise the February instalment — notify by 31 January; To revise the May instalment — notify by 30 April”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 24: “It applies from Year of Assessment 2026/2027 onward”

CORROBORATED

The 'Daily FT' and 'Sri Lanka: IRD issues revised guidance' sources both confirm the guidance applies from the Year of Assessment 2026/2027.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Digital terrestrial television (DTT) in the Philippines is the digital broadcasting system used for free-to-air terrestrial television in the country. The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_terrestrial_television…

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+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 25: “C is the running total of tax already secured for the year as at the due date of the instalment in question.”

CORROBORATED

The 'Instant Tax Solutions' source defines C as 'Tax already paid through previous instalments, Withholding Tax (WHT), Advance Income Tax (AIT), and eligible foreign tax credits before the due date of the ins[talment]'.

schedule

Claim 26: “an employee who also earns rental or interest income subject to AIT withholding remains exempt from instalments and credit-schedule filing, provided the AIT withheld on that passive income is sufficient to cover the remaining tax liability for the year. This specific relief applies to employees whose APIT is computed under APIT Table 8.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 27: “If a taxpayer had taxable income in the immediately preceding year of assessment, Method 1, the Standard Basis, is not optional. It is the mandatory starting point”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.