KARACHI: Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) has approached Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Muhammad Jahanzeb Khan requesting another extension in the date of filing the Return of Income, Statement of Final Taxation, up to December 31, 2018.
“We at KTBA believe that the role of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is to facilitate the existing taxpayers and to welcome the new taxpayers making filing of returns for the first time. This is not only the vision of newly elected government but also the key objective of the FBR to broaden the tax base,” President KTBA Khalid Mahmood noted in a letter to Chairman FBR.
He said that this year response in filing of returns is much better than last year and it is due to the joint efforts of FBR and the tax consultants that the number of taxpayers is increasing.
“Our members are enthusiastically working day and night to maximize filing of tax returns within the given time of November 30, 2018, however, our members are being precluded to file the returns due to several reasons which need FBR’s urgent attention.”
During the current year, many taxpayers having foreign-sourced income want to declare it in proper manner, however, procedure in this regard is not explained by the FBR as to how this information can be reported in the return form because it only provides one column for filling foreign income from all sources at code No. 6000.
“We would like to refer to Circular No. 3 of 2018 dated 12th September 2018, which specified that FBR is issuing a separate Circular regarding explanation and filing of income from Foreign Sources but we regret to inform that no such circular is yet issued,” KTBA said.
On 25th November 2018, abruptly the return form was changed without any issuance of notification and “yield on Behbood Certificates / Pensioner’s Benefit Account” which previously was classified under “final/ fixed/ minimum/ average/ relevant/ reduced tak” was transferred to Income from Other Sources causing problem for the taxpayers.
“We have been informed by our members that they are working very hard with late sittings on daily basis, preparing and filing the returns of their clients but they are under extreme pressure of returns filing work and in spite of all their efforts they are not in a position to complete their work load as quite a lot of new taxpayers are also approaching them for filing of tax returns so as to avoid being Non-Filers anymore,” KTBA President noted.
It is pertinent to mention that five precious days were lost due to recent unrest. “It is to inform you that our members were also occupied in replying to notices recently issued in bulk regarding selection under the omitted section 214D which also consumed a lot of professional time of our members,” KTBA said in its letter to Chairman FBR.
More importantly, as per history IRIS has become slowed down considerably due to heavy workload, which is rendering KTBA members workless and in a hapless position resulting into wastage of huge amount of their professional hours.
KTBA urged FBR to consider for extension of time as it would be unfair if genuine and bonafide taxpayers and also the new taxpayers intending to become tax filers are compelled to accomplish something which is not reasonable.
This position becomes more troublesome due to recent insertion of section 182A whereby the late filing exposes the taxpayers to be treated as ‘non-filer’ for the entire next year equating them with those non-filers who did not even bother to file return at all and you will appreciate that both should not be treated in same manner.
“We understand that FBR has a firm policy of facilitating its taxpayers who intend to comply with the law but are unable to do so due to genuine reasons narrated supra. You are therefore, requested to kindly extend the last date of filing of Return of Income / Statement of Final Taxation and wealth statements from 30th November 2018 to December 31, 2018 in line with previous years when extension was granted even beyond this date”.