FBR extends date for filing tax returns

 

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has announced extension in deadline for filing income tax returns till November 30, 2018.

According to reports, the process of filing income tax returns was at snail’s pace owing to the incentives given to non-filers in the mini budget announced by the government couple of weeks ago.

It is reported that around 0.34 million people submitted income tax returns till September 30, prompting the FBR to extended the deadline.

Under the PTI’s mini budget presented on Sep 18, non-filers can now buy property but on a higher (registration) rate, Similarly, Withholding tax on banking transactions for non-filers will be maintained.

Finance Minister Asad Umar said that the government is removing the petroleum levy imposed by the previous government while increasing the duty on expensive smartphones and luxury cars. He also announced ending the tax rebate for ministers including the prime minister and governors of all four provinces.

He said the ratio of income tax will be maintained on salaried persons getting up to Rs.200,000 per month, while for income more than 2400000, 29% highest tax rate will be charged for non-salaried and 25% for salaried people.

In September, the FBR also introduced an offline application mode to make it hassle free for the people to prepare their income tax return and wealth statement without internet connectivity.

The FBR statement read that the new offline application system would enable taxpayers to fill out returns in offline mode and the forms can be submitted later according to the convenience of taxpayers.

This new mode will not require taxpayers to remain online for an extended period of time.

The PTI-led government is further mulling over ways to introduce more facilitation with strict measures to penalise non-compliant taxpayers.

This initiative of FBR will assist in curbing the slowness of online system and the issues confronted by taxpayers due to internet connection.

The application called Iris-ADX (Asynchronous Data Exchange) has been prepared by the Information Technology Wing of the FBR.