ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue has assigned the task of registration of new taxpayers to Regional Tax Offices. The RTOs have been directed to issue notices to potential taxpayers be issued under section 114 of the Income Tax Returns. FBR official told Customs Today that approximately 54, 789 notices have been issued by the RTOs so far.
The source said that FBR had further directed all RTOs to maintain computerized stock of registers for all potential taxpayers both fillers & non fillers. In view of importance of the matter a fresh initiative to expand the tax net has been launched by the government in previous Fiscal Year.
The source said that for this purpose a national data Warehouse had been set up in FBR, the data warehouse primarily included the data collected through third party sources such as motor vehicle registering authorities, educational institution CVT collected by FBR and provincial government on purchase of immovable property, electricity distribution companies, automobile manufacturing companies and withholding tax statements.
Based on this data base notices are being issued, source said adding that potential taxpayers, who were not on the FBR’s roll, were being pursued through Directorate General of Broadening of Tax Base. Notices for filling of return were delivered to such.
The source said that notice requiring filling of returns had been issued to 154,874 potential taxpayers so far and in response to these notices 31,901 new taxpayers have filed returns.
Provisional assessments in cases where the person did not respond to the notice have been framed in more than 35,879 cases; the source added observing that a tax demand of Rs 18.56 billion had been raised in such cases. The source said that FBR had also sought information from National Database and Registration Authority NADRA regarding persons who had declared themselves as Businessmen in Computerized National Identity Card CNIC form submitted with NADRA.
The source said that the new policy measures taken through Finance Act 2014, to broaden the tax base included a new regime wherein different rate of adjustable withholding of Income Tax for income tax returns fillers and non filers on certain transactions had been introduced.
This include sales and purchase of immovable property, purchase registration and transfer of ownership of motor vehicle, cash withdrawal from banks and payments of profit on debt and dividend income. The source maintained saying that the higher rates of tax for non fillers would not only prod non filer to file returns and declare their income from all sources but also provide a data base to FBR for identification of potential taxpayers to be pursued for broadening of tax base.
