Pakistan Tax Bar Association (PTBA) has approached the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for extension in the last date for filing of income tax returns of corporate and non-corporate sectors for the year 2019 up to 31stJanuary, 2020 in order to facilitate the genuine taxpayers of the country.
According to a communication of the PTBA to the FBR here on Monday, President PTBA Aftab Hussain Nagra said that the heartily efforts of Federal Board of Revenue are being appreciated wherein 2.73 million income tax returns were filed for tax year 2018 and setting its goal up to 3.3 million for tax year 2019, the FBR has achieved 2.2 million returns till date and such progress is still going on.
Attention is also invited towards the factual circumstances that due to system capability, limited returns can be filed daily, he said. Furthermore, certain issues need to be addressed before end of the date of filing of income tax returns for tax year 2019 because traders are still waiting for fixed tax regime under section 99B and 99C of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 for small shopkeepers to file their respective returns.
Moreover, a number of taxpayers deposited their tax challans for amnesty declarations under scheme of 2019 but could not file their declarations and need to revise their wealth statement for 2018 in order to file returns along with wealth statement for tax year 2019 after procedure is described by Federal Board of Revenue.
In continuation of above, the taxpayers are still facing huge problems in IRIS system and a few of the discrepancies are being reproduced hereunder for kind attention as filing of corporate income tax returns has been seriously affected by these lacunas:
1) The IRIS system is applying rate of small company at 24 percent in private limited or public listed company, whereas the companies are also unable to correct status.
2) Tax credit under section 65B of the Ordinance is being taken at 5 percent which is creating difficulty to claim 10% tax credit and the same issue is also pending litigation before the competent court of law.
3) IRIS system has no option to file the public listed company return.
4) No proper tab is available for exempt income in corporate sector.
5) Due to continuous extensions in filing of returns for individuals/AoPs (non-corporate) up to 31-12-2019, extraordinary burden stretched out the bar members/consultants.
Keeping in view of the above issues, the date for filing of Income Tax returns of corporate and non-corporate sectors for the year 2019 be extended up to 31st January, 2020 in order to facilitate the genuine taxpayers of the country, he demanded.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019