KARACHI: Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) has demanded the finance ministry of extended the last date for filing annual income tax returns up to December 31 as many taxpayers may not able to file their returns by November 15 due to slowdown in official return filing portal.
The KTBA on Wednesday sent a letter to Finance Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar requesting for extension of time for filing return of income/statement of final taxation and wealth statement for tax year 2017.
The KTBA said that the form of wealth statement and reconciliation statement for e-filers and forms of return of income/statement of final taxation, wealth statement and reconciliation statement on excel sheet for manual filers was finally prescribed through SRO 981(I)/2017 dated September 28, 2017.
The form of return of income for companies was prescribed through SRO 982(I)/2017 on September 28, 2017 as well.
The tax bar informed the minister that the time prescribed under various sub-sections of Section 118 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 for manual / e-filing the tax return along with wealth statement for the taxpayers falling under the final tax regime (FTR) and salaried individuals is two months from the end of financial year i.e. August 31 and similarly three months from the end of financial year for business individual i.e. September 30 and in the cases of certain companies also the last date of filing the tax return is September 30 every year.
The time has presently been extended up to November 15, 2017 through circular No. 08 of 2017 dated October 31, 2017 for all the cases mentioned above.
The KTBA also informed that the extension of time presently allowed only up to November 15 is not at all sufficient but is also contrary and against the time provided in the statute. “Since the above stated forms were finally notified on September 28, 2017, the last date of filing the return of income/statement of final taxation along with wealth statement should be two months and three months respectively from the date of finally notifying the said forms, which criteria does not at all meet the presently allowed extension of time up to only November 15, 2017 which definitely needs to be extended further,” it added.
The KTBA further informed that members of the bar were continuously working hard to complete the gigantic task of preparing and filing the returns of their various clients, the deadline of which is approaching fast.
The members are also facing serious stress due to unreasonable time of IRIS downtime, IRIS slow working which is not only making the bar members in an anxious position and they are unable to complete their returns filing work due to huge backlog by virtue of the late prescribing of the return forms, particularly the form of wealth statement which is mandatory to be filed along with the return of income as the said form was prescribed very late on September 28, 2017. The tax bar also attached three screenshots showing slow working or not working of the IRIS.
The KTBA also informed that Chehlum of Hazrat Imam Hussain (A.S.) is falling on Friday November 10 and most of the part of Karachi is likely to remain closed and it will not be possible for the taxpayers to visit the offices of their tax consultants and similarly many of bar members would also not be able to reach their offices. It is also likely and expected that mobile phone service shall also remained closed throughout Pakistan for the whole day.
Considering the situation the tax bar requested the finance minister to intervene in the matter and extend the last date up to December 31, 2017 which is the legal right of the taxpayer under the statute.
