KARACHI: Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) Pakistan has opposed tax amnesties and suggested the tax machinery to use available information with proper enforcement.
“Tax Amnesties without proper penal clauses had been a failure. With the strengthening of OECD, they should be done away with and focus should instead be shifted on using the organization’s platform to retrieve necessary information and ensure proper enforcement of applicable laws and regulations,” the association recommended this in its tax proposals for budget 2019/2020.
ACCA has presented detailed recommendations for bringing structural reforms in the taxation system while opposing any amnesty scheme in the presence of plethora of information maintained by the Federal Board of Revenue.
For the structural reforms following measures have been suggested by the ACCA:
• A single tax return for all taxation affairs of a taxpayer which all authorities can utilize to obtain the relevant data.
• Harmonization of taxation laws in the country.
• Resolving issues within IRIS to make it more user friendly
• Integration of Federal and Provincial Revenue Authorities’ systems and databases
Structural Reforms
• Reducing the discretionary powers vested in FBR officials and shifting towards an objective criteria based approach
• Developing the existing policy of differential tax treatments and incentives for filers while penalizing non-filers
• Introducing impact on economic sectors (GDP development) and numbers of decisions upheld at the appellate forums along with collections target as a performance evaluation criteria for FBR functionaries
• Ensuring time limits adherence as specified in the laws and rules particularly pertaining to refund matters
• Facilitating the tax payers
• Introducing confidence by establishing a swift response complaint resolution cell to deal with corruption and harassment of tax payers
• Change in discretionary powers of FBR for moveable and/or immovable property including bank accounts attachment to improve ease of doing business and trust of taxpayers in the tax apparatus. Limit the attachment powers to only cases involving concrete information re asset disposal.
• Ensuring no post remains vacant for more than two weeks to avoid delays in resolving tax-payers issues arising out of transfers, postings and additional charges, etc.
• Limiting charge on a single post in FBR to a maximum of two (2) years to discourage the corrupt practices and collaborations.
• Effective enforcement should be ensured by working on maximum automation of the taxation system.
• Effective enforcement should be ensured by working on maximum automation of the taxation system.
• Hiring and training of adequately qualified staff with ongoing capacity building should be focused on to ensure efficient and productive results from the tax apparatus.
• Appointing independent officials as Commissioner Appeals ideally from the judicial service and qualified accountants practicing taxation from various bodies including ACCA.
• ACCA is the largest Global accountancy body, which is now the largest in Pakistan too. Including ACCA members practicing taxation within the definition of accountant members for the Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue will further strengthen the competition and meritocracy.
• Hiring and training of adequately qualified staff with ongoing capacity building should be focused on to ensure efficient and productive results from the tax apparatus.
• Limiting charge on a single post in FBR to a maximum of two (2) years to discourage the corrupt practices and collaborations.
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