ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Monday issued new instructions to its tax offices for extension in filing income tax returns in special cases.
The new instructions have disappointed tax consultants, practitioners and business community, who approached the FBR with request to extend the last date for filing income tax return beyond December 08, 2020.
As only one day is left for filing income tax return for tax year 2020 the FBR issued instructions to field offices to facilitate taxpayers in granting date extension provided that requests are filed with genuine reasons for non-compliance by due date.
The FBR has already made it clear that it would not further extend the last date for filing income tax return beyond December 08, 2020 as statutory time of 90 days granted to taxpayers for making compliance.
It is worth mentioning that Pakistan Tax Bar Association (PTBA) in its letter on December 02, 2020 urged the FBR to extend the last date up to January 31, 2020 due to multiple reasons. The primary reasons identified by the tax bar was miscalculation in tax rate for different taxpayers.
Further, it also identified the extraordinary situation due to coronavirus which restricted workforce to half besides halting the working activities due to lockdown imposed in various parts of the country.
However, the FBR on Monday issued instructions to all the field offices regarding manual receipt of applications for extension to file income tax return for tax year 2020.
The FBR again clearly mentioned that it would not further extend the date for filing income tax returns for tax year 2020. However, as per the new instructions application may be filed manually to commissioner Inland Revenue covering many taxpayers for extension in date for filing tax returns.
The FBR directed the tax offices:
(i) That, every Inland Revenue field formation would establish a help desk to receive manual requests for extension;
(ii) That, one request for extension addressed to chief commissioner Inland Revenue concerned could cover multiple taxpayers provide it contains taxpayers’ name; CNIC.NTN and identification of jurisdiction.
(iii) That the option for filing online request for extension would also be available and can be availed to the maximum degree; and
(iv) That, extension would be granted generously to the extent possible.
The FBR further directed the chief commissioner to ensure proper receipt of all requests, grant of extension, and report the number of requests received, and the extension granted by December 10, 2020.
