Although the government has done away with the mandatory requirement of filing of wealth statement, the web-portal of the Federal Board of Revenue has still not been updated, creating immense difficulties for taxpayers in performing their legal obligations; it is learnt on Monday.
According to sources, taxpayers are facing hardships in submitting their income tax returns as the FBR's web-portal is not accepting income tax returns without wealth statement despite exemption granted by the government to taxpayers having less than Rs one million of income or value of assets.
Sources said the government after witnessing poor response to filing of tax returns had not only exempted taxpayers having less than Rs one million of income or value of assets but also reduced minimum penalty to Rs 10,000 for late filers. The SRO 978 had been issued that reflects mandatory requirement of filing of wealth statement is no more for all taxpayers. They said taxpayers having an income or value of assets over Rs 1 million had to file income tax returns along with wealth statement.
Replying to a question, they said only 53,000 income tax returns had so far been received by the FBR despite two month's extension. Keeping this in view, the government has given some relaxation with a view to motivating taxpayers to file income tax returns. Moreover, the sources said that wealth statement was now mandatory only when the amount of tax paid was over Rs 35,000 in the final tax regime (FTR). When contacted, Ali Rahim, former president Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) confirmed that the FBR's web-portal is still not updated as per the government decision, creating difficulties for taxpayers. He urged the authorities to take necessary action to facilitate taxpayers at max.