KARACHI: Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) has highlighted anomalies in single sales tax return form, which was to be filed for the month of December 2021 in January 2022.
“The sales tax return form has been uploaded on the IRIS portal pre-maturely without removing bugs and without proper testing,” the KTBA said in a letter sent to the chairman of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Monday.
READ MORE: FBR extends date for filing sales tax return
Such exercises do not only agitate the taxpayers but they also damage the image of the FBR, it added.
KTBA president Zeeshan Merchant in the letter to the FBR chairman, hoped that the tax authorities would resolve the issues at the earliest and in the meantime would allow reasonable time to the taxpayers to file sales tax return harmoniously.
He suggested the FBR to allow filing of sales tax return on e-FBR until the issues are resolved, synchronized and anomalies are effectively removed.
READ MORE: FBR launches sales tax return filing through single portal
As part of automation in tax services vis-à-vis to ensure facilitation /ease of doing business to the taxpayers, the FBR launched single sales tax return for goods and services on IRIS Portal through Office Memo dated December 24, 2021 and has made it operational from the Tax Period December 2021 and onwards.
The tax bar while appreciating the efforts of the FBR stated that it is equally important to follow the legal norms and comprehend and resolve the practical intricacies in the episode passionately.
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About the legality of the filing sales tax return, Merchant noted that the procedure to prescribe and file monthly Sales Tax Return under the Sales Tax Act, 1990 (Act), are sourced via Rule 14 and SRO 555(I)/2006 dated June 05, 2006 which has been amended from time to time; where a monthly Sales Tax Return (for goods) under Form STR-7 is prescribed and is intact as of today. Seemingly, the Single Sales Tax Return (for goods and services) as launched on the strength of Office Memo dated December 24, 2021 without amending SRO dated June 05, 2006, “we believe, is in direct conflict with Rule 14 and we, therefore, expect that the FBR will cater to this aspect religiously at the earliest.”
Besides legal issues, the KTBA highlighted a number of anomalies/glitches the in Single Sales Tax Return uploaded on IRIS Portal, which the tax bar said are acute and otherwise are seen as impediments in filing the correct return.
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