Army has efficient mechanism for filing tax returns: FBR

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Army has placed an efficient mechanism for ensuring filing of tax returns from all personnel who are earning taxable income as the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) used to collect around Rs400 million in shape of taxes from military’s accounts on monthly basis under the jurisdiction of Regional Taxpayer Office (RTO) Rawalpindi.“The return filing is considered among pre-requisites for granting promotions to Army officers and even Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa had filed his return last month much ahead of timeframe for filing of income tax return,” FBR’s Member Facilitation and Taxpayer Education (FATE) Hamid Ateeq Sarwar told reporters in a media briefing here at FBR’s headquarters on Wednesday.Flanked by Member Inland Revenue Policy Dr Mohammad Iqbal and Member Audit Nausheen Javaid Amjad, the FBR’s member FATE said that different marriage halls run by the Army were paying withholding taxes fully.“A marriage hall named Topi Rakh is the largest taxpayer in RTO Rawalpindi,” he added.Earlier, there were reports that some marriage halls especially in Abbottabad are not paying their withholding taxes fully, however, the FBR’s member FATE, who had earlier served in RTO Rawalpindi, confirmed that it was altogether different into jurisdiction of RTO Rawalpindi. Sharing details of waiving off penalty for the salaried class, the FBR Member IR on Policy Dr Iqbal said the tax machinery sent out tax notices to over one million tax filers for tax year 2015, 2016 and 2017 who had filed their returns late and offered them to pay 25 percent more or pay of 2 percent of their turnover. Now the FBR has waived off penalty for around 350,000 late filers of salaried class, he added. The FBR, he said, did not slap any new penalty on late filers of returns but it was already part of the income tax law. But an impression was created in such a way that some kind of new penalty was imposed on salaried class, he maintained.The FBR Member Taxpayers Audit Nausheen Javaid Amjad said the Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL) central system had issued notices to the late filers of income tax returns for audit without any manual intervention. The notices were served electronically on the taxpayers to avoid manual processes. The notices were issued without any discrimination. Around Rs41.63 million tax has been collected form the 2,103 taxpayers, who have deposited the tax to avail exemption from audit. She said the FBR is working on the new audit policy-2018 which would be issued in next few months.When asked about tax notices issued to politicians including sister of Prime Minister Imran Khan, the FBR Member IR Policy said that the FBR could not disclose personal information of individuals under the confidentiality clause. To a query, Dr Iqbal said the FBR will refund the amount to the salaried persons who have deposited penalty for late filing of returns. To another query, the FBR Member Dr Iqbal said that DFID had never linked any grant to FBR with issuance of notices to politicians or a specific class or high net individuals.

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