ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has made filing of income tax returns mandatory for salaried taxpayers.

The taxable incomes for salaried persons start from Rs400,000 onwards per annum. As per decision, the salaried taxpayers who earn an income between Rs400,001 to Rs500,000 are now required to file income tax returns electronically. Earlier, salaried taxpayers falling in this category were required to file returns manually.

FBR Spokesperson Shahid Husain Asad told Dawn that the decision was taken to facilitate the taxpayers and only a limited number of taxpayers fall in this category.

The last date for filing of income tax returns for salaried taxpayers is August 31, 2015 and for individuals and Association of Persons (AoPs) the last date of filing income tax returns/statements is Sept 30, 2015.

Asked whether the last date will be extended for filing of income tax returns, the spokesperson said that it was too early to comment on that. Normally, the last date for filing of income tax returns is extended until November 30 every year.

The date of filing of returns for total income/statements of final taxation of companies whose tax year ends between the July 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014 due on or before September 30, 2015, provided that the admitted liability of tax due with return was deposited by September 30, 2014.

In budget 2015-16, the government introduced 0.6 per cent withholding tax on banking transactions of those people who are not filing income tax returns. Also the government doubled the token tax of vehicle owners in case of non-filers.

These two steps are expected to woo people to file tax returns in the tax year 2015 to avoid paying the withholding tax of 0.6pc on banking transactions and also to pay lower tax rates for token tax.

Until Jan 8, 2015 the total income tax returns filed reached to 829,222, up by 7.54pc from 771,118. These returns included more than 92pc returns filed by individuals, which witnessed a growth of over 8pc, followed by AoPs with a paltry growth of 0.64pc and companies 1.21pc.

However, what is troubling is the fact that the ranks of taxpaying people seem to be shrinking every year. Statistics show that 1.44 million people filed their returns in 2011. But in 2013, there were only about 840,000 taxpayers whom the FBR could trace at their homes or workplaces. Almost similar numbers of taxpayers were recorded in the tax year 2014.

In 2010, 1.7m tax returns were filed. Does this mean that the missing numbers are imaginary taxpayers?

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2015

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