ISLAMABAD: A total of 155,027 women engaged in businesses/women entrepreneurs in Pakistan are filers of income tax returns, whose names are appearing on the “Active Taxpayers List” of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
In this connection, the FBR for the first time issued “Active Women Taxpayers” data as on January 1, 2023.
The FBR data released on Tuesday revealed that the number of “Individual Active Women Taxpayers” declaring income from business activities stood at 124,735. The highest number of women return filers fall under this category of individual taxpayers, whose names are appearing in the FBR’s ATL.
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The number of Active Taxpayers (Association of Persons) with 50 percent or more women stood at 9,622.
The number of companies with 50 percent or more women directors are 20,671, the FBR data added.
The FBR stated that to support the efforts of the government to promote women entrepreneurship, the FBR is publishing the number of women owned business/women entrepreneurs that are active income taxpayers. The data will be published in following three categories and will be updated every six months:
(Category-I); Individual Active Taxpayers who have declared income for business including income subject to presumptive tax regime.
(Category-II); Number of Active Associations of Persons (AOPs) with 50% or more members.
(Category-III); Number of companies with 50% or more women directors.
It is worth mentioning that chairman FBR had set up special desk at Gwadar for addressing grievances and concerns of women entrepreneurs and to facilitate them in filing tax returns.
Experts said that the women entrepreneurs are facing hardships in tax compliance such as timely return filing and high cost of filing charged by tax practitioners, which is also discouraging new women entrepreneurs to register their businesses with the FBR.
They suggested that fixed tax regime for small women entrepreneurs may be introduced. They also requested that awareness sessions on filing tax returns and tax compliance procedures may be arranged in Women Chamber of Commerce & Industry of major cities to encourage women entrepreneurs to make tax compliance with ease.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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