KARACHI: The Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) has approached Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) seeking extension in the date for filing monthly statements.
In a letter to chairman FBR, President KTBA Syed Rehan Jafri noted members of Tax Bar Association / Withholding Agents are facing extreme difficulties in e-filing of monthly statements which are not properly uploading the payment made u/s 149 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.
The rate of tax on salaries is being auto calculated by the IRIS which, however, after Validation and Calculation, is calculating the tax automatically at Zero on the taxable salary. Due to this anomaly the difference arises in actual tax payment. The issue has been reported at FBR helpline several times both via email and telephonic conversation by the withholding agents but to end in vain only.
The new tax withholding rates are not updated on IRIS portal as per Finance Act, 2016. Due to unavailability of new tax codes for new tax rates on the IRIS portal, Tax Bar members are not able to upload the correct tax withholding amount under the respective sections with the monthly WHT statement on the portal.
IRIS system is not accepting the exemption codes as provided in the excel template and is consequently calculating the tax against the exempted payments. Therefore, the taxpayers are unable to e-file the monthly statement u/s 165 of the Income Ordinance, 2001 for the month of July 2016 which is due on the 15th August, 2016 being the last day of compliance.
In view of above, the Bar has requested the Board to resolve the above mentioned issues and extend the date of statement u/s 165 Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 for a reasonable time of 15 days after addressing the above problems and taking of the correction in this regard in order to avoid penalties on the taxpayers without any default on their part but due to the malfunctions of IRIS system.