ISLAMABAD: In a bid to simplify the filing of tax returns as well as to bring more and more people into the tax net, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is going to give the option of filing returns in Urdu language in the coming tax year.
This proposal is under consideration at the highest level and is most likely to be finalized prior to the beginning of tax year 2018-19. Moreover, as an initiative to simplify returns, the FBR is also in the process of drafting a single page return for salaried individuals, which will be notified for tax year 2018.
“FBR is continuously striving to simplify the process of return filing and to remove the difficulties faced by taxpayers while filing returns. In this regard, FBR has made efforts in taking facilitative steps to simplify tax returns for the taxpayers,” sources at the FBR told Customs Today. They added that taxpayers had the facility to file their returns electronically through IRIS, an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), covering all business process of income tax.
The sources said that IRIS had a business rule engine covering all provisions of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 and the taxpayer simply has to provide the figures of his income, receipts and expenses. The system automatically calculates the tax liability on the basis of the legal provisions applicable for the tax year for which the return is being filed.
“The system automatically performs all calculations including totaling and reconciliation of assets. In case the wealth statement of the taxpayer is not reconciled, the system prompts the taxpayer indicating the exact amount by which the wealth is un-reconciled so that the taxpayer can rectify,” the sources maintained.
The sources told that during preparing wealth statement the figures of the wealth statement filed for the previous year were automatically imported so the taxpayer does not have to fill all the columns again. A similar option of importing last year’s data had been provided in the Income tax return as well in previous Tax Year 2017.
The sources said that FBR also launched Customer Relationship Management software in which queries by taxpayers, lodged either by e-mail phone or website is handled and redressed. The existing return form has separate parts dealing with different categories of tax payers. Taxpayers deriving income from salary or any specific head of income have to fill only that portion of return which is relevant to them.
