KARACHI: Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) has praised the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for achieving unrealistic target for the fiscal year 2013/2014 and for issuing early the draft income tax return forms for tax year 2014.
The FBR issued the draft of income tax return forms for the tax year 2014 on July 01, 2014 through SRO 618(I)/2014.
The tax bar in a letter sent to chairman FBR, said that the return for the tax year 2013 had become very user friendly over the period of five years and taxpayers and practitioners have got used to the said return and familiarized with all the column of the return. It is therefore, suggested that the same return forms may be adopted for this year with necessary changes as required by law.
The tax bar said that return forms were marked/encircled emphasizing the fact that either the heads are not correct/properly worded, unnecessary information has been required, duplication in column, some columns are missing or the information sought is so cumbersome and time consuming that the taxpayers and practitioners would not able to file the returns in time.
The tax bar proposed the following changes in the draft wealth statement:
i) For “Agricultural Property” and “Other Property”, instead simple information should be required as the taxpayers and practitioners would be unable to collect the required information in time and some of the required information is either not familiar or available in some of the provinces and cities of Pakistan.
ii) Limit for filing the Wealth Statement for the tax year 2014 should also be made public so to avoid any confusion in this regard.
iii) Balance Sheet should not be pan of the Wealth Statement.
iv) Regarding Investment the details of institution, product and acquisition date cannot be provided by most the taxpayers, therefore this information should not be included in the return.
v) For Debt (non-business), debtor’s name, date and code are also difficult to be provided. Likewise, for Credit (non-business) creditor’s name, date and code are also difficult to be provided.
vi) For Motor Vehicles (non-business), engine number, chassis number and registration date is also uncalled for.
vii) For Precious Possession, it is difficult to get this sort of information from the taxpayer.
viii) For Household Effects, the old information of simple furniture and fixtures should be retained.
ix) For Cash In Hand & at Bank, unnecessary information needs to be deleted from the form.
x) There is no need to provide the Personal Expenditure in the wealth statement as the same are already part of the return of income. It is merely a duplication here which should be avoided.
xi) Reconciliation provided in last year’s Wealth Statement is to be retained for this year too.
Karachi Tax Bar praises FBR for achieving unrealistic target for 2013/2014
