The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Friday issued updated new Active Taxpayers List (ATL) on its website. The FBR has said that from March 1, 2019, Income Tax ATL is being updated on the basis of return filed for Tax Year 2018. According to a tax expert, the FBR has issued new Active Taxpayers List (ATL) displaying names of 1,596,340 taxpayers who filed their income tax returns for Tax Year 2018.
With the issuance of new ATL considering Tax Year 2018 and as per the law, the FBR will stop issuing weekly ATL, indicating no space for late filers in the ATL and subsequent withdrawal of tax concessions, the tax expert said. The expert added that all the withholding tax agents should save the ATL list.
It is pertinent to note that the "Acknowledgement of filing of the return/statement" is not tantamount to be a filer, unless the taxpayer's name appears in the ATL.
The FBR issues ATL on March 1 every year of those taxpayers who filed their returns during the preceding tax year. The appearance of taxpayer names is mandatory for availing the reduced rate of withholding tax applicable on various transactions including bank, properties, sale/purchase of securities, motor vehicles, etc, the tax expert added.
Another tax expert said that it needs to be understood that there is no cut-off date for filing of Income Tax returns. Income Tax law does provide a due date for filing of returns but the taxpayers are allowed to file their returns for a tax year several years after the end of the tax year. A meaningful comparison of the number of returns filed for a year with the preceding year has to be for a given date because the returns for the preceding year continue to be filed even in the next year.