ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and Pakistan Tax Bar (PTB) on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for broadening of narrowed tax base in the country.
Under the MoU, Pakistan Tax Bar will share a list of qualified and willing members of Tax bar to file tax return of the new taxpayers. FBR will make a list of tax consultants available to new taxpayers wanting to file tax returns and will facilitate this by the payment of fixed fee for filing of return to the tax consultants.
“The facility will be purely voluntary and a taxpayer will have an option to avail this free of cost facility or hire his/her own tax consultant,” the FBR , in a statement, said.
Terming it a historic development, FBR stated that it had taken a watershed initiative to ensure facilitation in filing of tax return by new taxpayers for broadening of tax base.
The FBR possessed data of over 7 million tax dodgers who possessed potential income, but never filed tax returns. There are around 2.7 million return filers, but many preferred to file return with nil income.
The board has been making claims for having a database about non-filers, but so far it failed t take any tangible actions mainly because possessing information did not mean that it could be converted for the purpose of taxability.
The FBR is all set to launch yet another out of box digital intervention for broadening of tax base through definite information obtained about non filers. The board has already collected information about assets and expenditures of the persons outside the tax net from various sources. The information could be made available to persons outside the tax net through Tax Asaan Portal.
Broadening of tax Base is a key priority of the government and this facility of filing of tax return is envisaged to be an ‘unprecedented’ step for facilitation of new tax payers and thus maximize tax compliance in the country.
