ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue has served notices on employees/taxpayers who have filed their wealth statements along with income tax returns for Tax Year 2013 to recover Income Support Levy (ISL).
According to notices issued under section 3 of the Income Support Levy Act 2013, the taxpayers have been directed to pay ISL at the rate of 0.5 percent of the movable assets above Rs1 million.
The notice reads that the ISL has been upheld by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. It is to be noted that only RTO-III Karachi has initiated proceedings for recovery of the ISL as it exercises jurisdiction over employees generally.
The ISL is sub judice in the SHC through various constitutional petitions filed by taxpayers and next hearing will be held February 24. Although the Supreme Court did not uphold the levy, it vacated the interim stay order issued by the SHC in the writ petition number 3575 of 2013.
On the other hand, the notices issued for the recovery of ISL have ‘apparently’ lost sanctity on the ground that when a matter is sub judice in the Higher Court then the lower court or authority should not proceed until it is decided by the Higher Court.
It is worth mentioning here that the FBR’s view as to the charge of ISL has been upheld by the Supreme Court of Pakistan vide order laid down in Civil Petition No 1796 of 2013.
