Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) on Monday requested the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to extend the date of e-filing of monthly statements under section 165 of Income Tax Ordinance 2001 till August 31, 2016. In a letter sent to the chairman FBR, the KTBA stated that taxpayers/withholding agents were facing difficulties in e-filing of monthly statements, which were being not properly uploaded the payment made under section 149 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.
It said that the rate of tax on salaries was being auto calculated by the IRIS which, however, after validation and calculation, is computing the tax automatically at zero on the taxable salary. Following the said anomaly, the difference arises in actual tax payment. The issue has been reported at FBR helpline multiple times both via email and telephonic conversation by the Withholding agents but no action has been taken so far.
Similarly, the new tax withholding rates are not updated on IRIS portal as per Finance Act, 2016. Due to unavailability of new tax codes for new tax rates on the IRIS portal, taxpayers are unable to upload the correct tax withholding amount under the respective Sections with the monthly WHT statement on the portal. The letter further said that IRIS system was not accepting the exemption codes as provided in the excel template and is consequently calculating the tax against the exempted payments.
Therefore, the taxpayers are unable to e-file the monthly statement under section 165 of the Income Ordinance, 2001 for the month of July 2016 which is due on August 15, 2016 being the last day of compliance. In view of above, the Bar has requested to extend the date of statement under section 165 of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 for next 15 days and avoid imposing penalties on the taxpayers, it said.