ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued over one million notices to income tax and sales tax registered persons and entities having annual turnover of Rs100 million or above during 2022 for improving compliance and revenue collection from high net-worth individuals.
The FBR’s report on enforcement measures for 2022 revealed that the Audit Policy, 2020 for Tax Year 2019 is under process in view of the experience obtained from the past audit policies. In addition to that, the wing also monitors audit activities carried out in the field formation throughout the year.
So far, more than one million notices have been issued till June 2022 to Income Tax and Sales tax registered Persons/ Entities having turnover of Rs100m and above in order to enforce compliance against different sections of the Income Tax Ordinance and Sales Tax Act.
The report revealed that the number of income tax return filers for tax year 2020 has crossed 3.0 million.
Under the enforcement plan, the FBR has embarked on a plan to integrate all sales outlets of tier-1 retailers with the FBR’s central computerized system.
As per the strategy, the FBR has decided to implement a Track and Trace System for specified goods/ products, i.e., tobacco, cement, sugar, fertiliser, and beverages imported into or manufactured in Pakistan.
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Assessment and Processing (A&P) Units: Sectorial analysis of huge business concerns has been conducted across the country by Assessment and Processing Units in all field formations of IRS. Sectors such as cement, sugar, cotton, and tobacco remained under focus.
In order to reduce litigation, the FBR is encouraging alternate dispute resolution mechanism, agreed assessment in appropriate cases and out of turn hearing by appellate forums in cases involving higher amount of revenues.
The Investigation and Prosecution (I&P) Units have taken legal actions (attachment of properties, arrests and seizures) has been made against huge tax defaulters to create deterrence against tax evaders, the FBR added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022