TAX NEWS - June 2010

Pakistan Tax: Over 74,000 non-filers to get tax notices

KARACHI: The Regional Tax Office (RTO) Karachi on Wednesday said that it would serve more than 74,000 notices to salaried persons drawing over Rs0.5 million annually for not filing returns electronically.

"Over 74,000 notices are ready to serve and the process will be completed by the end of month," said Imtiaz Ahmed Barakzai, Chief Inland Revenue, RTO Karachi.

The persons selected for notices are those having income of over 500,000 and failed to comply with the requirement of filing return and wealth statement electronically, he said.

Around 2.5 million income taxpayers are in the country in which the salaried persons are around 1.8 million.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had already served 150,000 notices to the salaried persons.

The income tax returns are usually filed by the employers on behalf of the employee. Barakzai said that for the current tax year, it was made mandatory for the salaried persons having income of over Rs500,000 to file income tax return, besides filing wealth statement.

The RTO Karachi, a revenue collection arm of the FBR, deals with around 0.8 million salaried taxpayers.

"For the initial years the authorities should give relief to the salaried class," said Abdul Qadir Memon, President, Pakistan Tax Bar Association.

He said that the returns had been filed by the salaried persons through manual mode. "But the FBR insisted on e-filing as several taxpayers are not aware about the procedure," he said.

The procedure of e-filing will be streamlined in the near future as it was initiated this year, he added.