ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tax Bar Association (PTBA) is anticipating at least 200,000 new taxpayers who would file their income tax returns this year.
In a letter to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, the PTBA appreciated that out of 675,000 income tax returns around 94,000 were new registered individuals; adding that last year (2016) approximately 1,300,000 tax returns were filed and it was being anticipated that at least 200,000 new taxpayers would file their returns, taking the number of IT returns to 1,500,000.
Keeping the said in view, the department is yet to receive 825,000 tax returns; 90 percent of which will be filed through online web portal. It said that besides filing of income tax return, the last date for filing online (i) monthly sales return and (ii) monthly withholding statement for October also fell on November 15, 2017. Moreover, PTBA said that the income tax return and Wealth Statement Form for above tax year were finalized and uploaded on Web-Portal “IRIS System” through Final SRO981(l)/2014 dated September 28, 2017.
As such in accordance with the provisions of Section 118 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, the prescribed time limit granted for filing/e-filing of the tax return along with Wealth Statement Form is up to December 27, 2017. It said that the tax consultants across the country were putting all out efforts and contributing extra working hours to perform their professional and national duty to prepare and finalize the tax returns/wealth statements in order to complete the work.
“This can be adjudged with the higher number of returns received this year in comparison to the figurers of last year in the corresponding months. However, PTBA are afraid that the existing FBR IT infrastructure or the tax practitioners have the capacity to achieve this target on or before December 20, 2017. Therefore, it is requested to extend the date for filing of tax returns up to December 20, 2017 to maximize the number of filers through outreach program and to facilitate the existing taxpayers of the country.
