ISLAMABAD: The efforts of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to make people-friendly tax regime by simplifying the tax collection system have produced very good results.
It is an ongoing process taken by the FBR itself as well as in coordination with stakeholders. Therefore, the number of filers increased to 12, 16, 614 last fiscal year from 10, 74,427 in the previous fiscal year.
“The FBR has made concerted effort to involve all stakeholders including the business community, chartered accountants, tax bars etc, in the budget making process so as to receive input which may help in simplification of laws and procedures,” sources at the FBR told Customs Today.
Towards this end FBR has taken a number of steps to make the tax regime people friendly: Since 2014, taxpayers have the facility to file their returns electronically through IRIS, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software application covering all business processes of income tax.
“IRIS has 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 sources said.
The sources said that the system automatically performed 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.
“While preparing Wealth Statement the figures of the Wealth Statement filed for the previous year are automatically imported so the taxpayer does not have to fill all the columns again. From Tax Year 2017, a similar option of importing last year’s data has been provided in the Income tax return as well,” the sources maintained.
The sources said that there was a complete help provided on the main login screen of Iris to guide the taxpayer in filing of return. IT Wing / PRAL was in the process of developing a more detailed help wherein a taxpayer would be able to access simple user guide at every step of the process by clicking on a sign given at the end of relevant rows.
Furthermore, the sources said that FBR had launched the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software in which complaints by taxpayers, lodged either by e-mail, phone or website is handled in a very scientific manner and redressed. It also provides the facility to track, monitor and archive issues reported by the taxpayers.
“The FBR publishes taxpayers’ facilitation brochures and uploads on FBR’s official website for taxpayers’ education. In addition, an elaborate mechanism of providing assistance /guidelines to taxpayers is available in the form of FBR’s helpline as well as taxpayer facilitation centers located at different stations” the sources added.
