Pakistan Tax Bar Association (PTBA) has requested the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to extend the last date for filing income tax returns till Dec 31 as the submission of around 1.6 million returns cannot be done till Oct 31. In a letter sent to FBR chairman Syed Shabbar Zaidi, PTBA said till Oct 25, only 918,027 annual returns were filed, which was around 65 percent as compared to the returns filed in tax year 2018.

It said the draft return form for 2019 was uploaded on Aug 23 through SRO 951 and final return was uploading on IRIS on Sep 2, through SRO 979, which showed lapse of statutory period of two months and all burden shifts on FBR. The manual return of income form for 2019 was issued on Sep 27 through SRO 1160, so the small volume taxpayers could file their returns of income for 2019 within stipulated time.

Moreover, it said the traders were observing shutter-down strike on Oct 29 and 30 besides current political situation is also causing hardships in e-filing of returns 2019. Therefore, it is requested to extend the last date for filing income tax returns by Dec 31, 2019.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019