ISLAMABAD: Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) has advised the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to impose penalty for late filing of income tax returns instead extending the last date.
The FTO in its annual report recommended that the FBR that instead of extending the last date for filing of Returns, late filing be allowed with certain penalty per month or any part of it, as it would be a more revenue-pro measure.
The FTO further recommended that in order to encourage increase in filing of Returns by employees of government and autonomous bodies, it was recommended that FBR to approach the concerned Authorities/Establishment Division to issue instructions to heads of government Departments, autonomous bodies and large scale public sector organizations for obtaining certificate of filing of Returns by their employees falling in the tax net, at the end of last date of filing of Returns, and link their promotions/increments to filing of Returns.
It was also suggested to devise mechanism in consultation with Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to ensure that business entities registered with SECP, who were non-filers, must file Income Tax Returns regularly.
It was also recommended that proper assistance to the Return filers be provided through establishment of facilitation centres at convenient places.
