The provisional 'Active Taxpayer List" of the income tax will be displayed on the website of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) from February 1, 2011 to restrict business community to only interact with the compliant persons, including buyers and sellers.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Sunday that the FBR has issued a new plan for final implementation of the 'Active Taxpayer List' (ATL) on the direct taxes side for 2011. According to the plan, there will be a single ATL, like single Taxpayer Register for Sales Tax and Income Tax, showing the compliance of sales tax and income tax as the case may be. The provisional list would be displayed in February 2011 and final list would be enforced in April 2011 after active consultation with the stakeholders, particularly business and trade. After enforcement of the ATL on the sales tax side, the combined list covering income tax would be provisionally released in February 2011.
The implementation timelines of ATL compiled on December 24 2010 showed that the provision of data of non-filers to RTO/ LTU for sending intimations to companies and AoPs would be done by December 2010 end. The intimation letters would be sent to non-filers including companies and AOPs by January 10, 2011. The FBR will finalise the ATL Rules by January 22, 2011. Later, the rules would be vetted by the Law Division, and final notification of ATL Rules would be issued by the Board. The provisional ATL would be displayed on the FBR website by February 1, 2011. At the same time the FBR will also launch the media campaign as proposed by FBR Members Domestic Operations (North and South). The issuance of Final ATL (without implementing the conditions) would be done by March 2011. The exclusion of non-filers of declarations for tax year 2010 and intimation to non-filers would be completed by April 2011. However, implementation of ATL conditions on non-ATL members (inactive taxpayers) would be decided by FBR in April 2011. This would be done by Member Direct Tax Policy in consultation with FBR Members Operations North and South.
The implementation plan of the ATL says that effectiveness of ATL implemented for sales tax registered persons is evident from the data for tax year 2009. The date of launching ATL for sales tax was October 2009. The sales tax return filers for SEP-2009 were 72,013; sales tax return filers for SEP-2010 were 82,539 and increase in filers (within 1 Year) was 0,526, or 15 percent.
It was acknowledged that the implementation of Active Taxpayers' List (ATL) introduced by FBR based on the compliance of sales tax returns proved to be an effective tool for ensuring better compliance in sales tax return filing. As such, necessary legal provision of implanting ATL was introduced in the Income Tax Ordinance through the Finance Bill 2010. Now it is right time to introduce the ATL criteria regarding filing of income tax declarations. The Board has started taking actions in the light of directions of FBR regarding implementation of ATL for income taxpayers. It included electronic intimations sent to the e-enrolled taxpayers who did not file IT Returns, Annual Employer Statement, where applicable and Annual Withholding Tax Statements, where applicable for Tax Year 2009.
The FBR further decided that there will be a single ATL, like single Taxpayer Register for Sales Tax and Income Tax, showing the compliance of Sales Tax and Income Tax as the case may be. The non-filers of IT returns and Withholding Tax Statements for TY-2009 where no e-Mail address is available will be intimated as follows:-
First, companies and AOPs will be sent Intimation Letters. The individuals will not be sent any exclusive intimation. The ATL Eligibility Checking system will be developed with important features. It includes that the system will be placed on the FBR and eFBR websites wherein the taxpayers and their buyers and suppliers will be able to check as to whether they qualify to become member of ATL or not. In case of non-eligible for ATL, the system will display the reasons and guidelines to become Active Taxpayer. A media campaign and display on FBR websites will be launched whereby awareness regarding the Advantages, Disadvantages and Inquiry criteria will be given to the taxpayers and public at large, the FBR added.
The initial criteria for bringing a taxpayer on ATL will be as follows:- Return filers of TY-2009 and filers of Annual Employer Statement for TY-2009.
The criteria for bringing an Active Taxpayer in ATL based on TY-2010 and TY-2011 will be as follows:- The income tax return filers of TY-2010 and regular payer of Advance Tax for TY-2011 onwards, where applicable. The regular e-Filer of Quarterly Withholding Tax Statements for TY-2011 onwards, where applicable. The e-Filer of Annual Employer Statement for TY-2010, where applicable, the criteria for ATL added.
Following type of taxpayers will be treated as Income Tax Return filers for TY-2009 and TY-2010, if they filed the returns electronically on eFBR Portal:- a) Company, b) AOP, c) Sales Tax Registered Persons, d) Salaried Persons having income of Rs 500,000 and above, e) Refund Claimants.
The plan further said that the rules for ATL will be framed by FBR. The advantages of becoming Active Taxpayer and disadvantages of being non Active Taxpayer will be prominently displayed on the FBR and eFBR Websites; and during the print/electronic media campaigns, FBR implementation plan added.
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