Interview: Sujit Bangar, Entrepreneur & Founder of TaxBuddy

Interview with Sujit Bangar, Founder of TaxBuddy

Sujit Bangar is a self-starter who has made immense strides in his career at a very young age. Bangar is a graduate in economics and political science from SP College, Pune.

He later went to Harvard Business School, Boston, USA, for his post-graduation in Management and Business Administration (MBA). He brings with him years of rich and varied experience.

He completed an ‘Advanced Programme in International Taxation and Transfer Pricing’ from the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD), Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

He also studied at IIM, Lucknow, where he successfully completed his Advanced Programme in Management and Tax Administration.

Bangar understands the value of mentoring and loves to spend time with budding entrepreneurs and start-ups and share ideas and insights eagerly with them.

Tell us a little about yourself

Sujit Bangar: I’m a graduate in Economics and Political Science from SP College, Pune. I later pursued post-graduation in Management and Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School, Boston, US.

I completed an Advanced Program in International Taxation and Transfer Pricing from the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD), Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

I also studied at the IIM-Lucknow, where I successfully completed my Advanced Program in Management and Tax Administration.

In 2004, I got into Indian Revenue Service and have served at various senior positions in the Income-Tax Department.

My father is a physician and my mother is a housewife. I have two sisters who are professional medical practitioners and a younger brother who is in the Indian Administrative Service.

Please tell us a little about your entrepreneurial journey

Sujit Bangar: I was the youngest Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer of the 2004 batch having started my career at age 22 in the IRS.

During my 13-year tenure in the I-T Department, I held several senior roles, and resigned as the Joint Commissioner in January 2017 at age 35 with the dream of revolutionizing the financial services sector in India.

I then founded TaxBuddy.com with the view of leveraging technology to ensure accurate tax advice for all my clients and to make it affordable.

I’m a self-made man and have gained considerable experience and achieved quite a bit of success in my career and that, too, at a considerably young age.

Kindly brief us about TaxBuddy. What are the main services your firm offers?

Sujit Bangar: Any individual wishes to have two things from tax compliance—first, precise tax compliance advice and second, tax savings.

At TaxBuddy.com, we offer both accuracy and tax savings with the use of technology. Users can also get tax planning and notice/query support free of cost from us after their returns are filed. Customers can also chat with our consultants on the TaxBuddy app.

What inspired you to start your own tax consultancy firm?

Sujit Bangar:  Indian society is transforming into a digital one in a big way. The Tax Department has been at the forefront of digitization.

Tax compliance is possible online without the hindrance of physical distances. And the next logical step is tax advisory automation. We at, TaxBuddy.com, have been focused on this aspect since its inception.

What challenges do you face when running a tax consultancy firm?

Sujit Bangar: Creating a tech-enabled ecosystem, with continuous automation of tax advisory patterns, is the biggest challenge. Continuously changing tax laws and keeping pace with them is another major challenge.

What are your plans for the firm?

Sujit Bangar: TaxBuddy.com has a very diverse user base across India. It has been emerging as the preferred option as a direct tax compliance platform.

TaxBuddy.com has been foraying into the field of GST compliance. Our tech team has developed an Input Tax Credit Management tool and, currently, it is in the beta testing stage. We’re going to expand our advisory automation-based compliance model to take it to the US.

What have some of your failures been? What have you learnt from them?

Sujit Bangar: There have been many failures along our journey. As the saying goes, we should learn to fail and rise up again by learning from our failures.

Our tech team has a free hand to experiment on new ideas each time. So, failures are a part of our day-to-day journey. These failures help us reinvent and keep us ahead of competition.

What are your success tips for young and aspiring entrepreneurs?

Sujit Bangar: I would like to tell every young and aspiring entrepreneur that it is very important to keep your vision clear.

The world is full of great ideas, but success comes only through action. You must have the courage to learn from your mistakes while you move closer to success.

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