ISLAMABAD: The tax authorities have issued 2.1 million notices to individuals and companies for non-compliance in annual return filing and to those who misdeclared assets in their annual returns of income.
According to a statement issued by FBR, these notices were sent to defaulters by February 28, 2021. The FBR issued notices around 1.4 million by January 31, 2021. It means during the month of February 2021 the revenue body issued another 700,000 notices to defaulters.
FBR is taking such action to broaden the tax base in the country. Early signs suggest such efforts are bearing fruits. As on February 28, 2021, the number of income tax returns filed was 2.63 million for tax year 2020 as compared with 2.43 million last year, showing an increase of 8 percent.
The FBR said that the tax return with return, however, increased by 60 percent to Rs49.6 billion up to February 28, 2021 as compared with Rs31 billion by the same date of the last year.
The FBR said that the income tax return for tax year 2020 had been increased despite the last date was not extended beyond December 08, 2020. Meanwhile the last date for filing income tax returns for tax year 2019 was extended up to February 25, 2020.
The exercise is eliciting encouraging response. However, those who are not complying would be pursued diligently until compliance is achieved.
