Individuals, AOPs and companies: FBR chief forms committee to simplify tax return forms

ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman Javed Ghani has constituted a committee for timely designing / finalisation and simplification of Income Tax Return forms for individuals, association of persons (AOPs), and companies for the tax year 2021.

According to the details released by the FBR here on Saturday, while departing from the previous practice, the FBR aims at designing the return forms in much advance, so that forms are available to the taxpayers on the very first day of the tax year.

The committee shall be chaired by Member (IR-Policy), whereas, chief information officer, chiefs of Inland Revenue Operations and Inland Revenue Policy and Second Secretary, Domain Business Team (DBT) of the FBR's Information Technology Wing would be members of the committee.

The committee has been constituted as a part of various reform initiatives and in pursuance to the special instructions of the prime minister.

The committee aims at simplifying the income tax return forms to the best possible extent besides developing the return forms that require least possible interventions on year to year basis.

International best practices shall be a guiding principle for the committee.

The idea behind this endeavour is to facilitate the taxpayers and make the income tax return form more user-friendly and free from unnecessary complications.

In order to make this initiative more fruit bearing and result oriented, the FBR through a separate communication has requested the ICAP, the ICMAP, the Pakistan Tax Bar Associations, and various chambers of commerce and industry to give their input for designing a simplified version of the returns.

The FBR has designated secretary Income Tax Policy at the FBR HQ to receive input on email: [email protected], and fax number: 051-9218298.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021