ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Thursday reminded taxpayers to update their profile by March 31, 2021 to avoid penal action.
“Statutory deadline for furnishing/updating of taxpayers’ profile under section 114A of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 is March 31, 2021,” the FBR said and urged taxpayers to update profile before the deadline in order to avoid penal consequences under the law.
Updating profile by all the taxpayers registered under Section 181 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 and other conditions specified by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is a mandatory requirement under Section 114A of the Ordinance.
Through Finance Act, 2020, the Section 114A was introduced to make the updating profile mandatory for following persons:
(a) every person applying for registration under section 181;
(b) every person deriving income chargeable to tax under the head, “Income from business”;
(c) every person whose income is subject to final taxation;
(d) any non-profit organization as defined in clause (36) of section 2;
(e) any trust or welfare institution; or
(f) any other person prescribed by the Board.
The FBR explained the newly introduced section as: “Complexity of return forms is an embodiment of the complexity of tax law. Nevertheless, there is a dire need to simplify return forms without compromising on data required to verify accuracy of the declared version.”
The FBR said that instead of endeavoring to obtain all the relevant information in the income tax return, a new section has been added wherein taxpayers profile may be prescribed in order to capture data relevant to the taxpayer.
It said that persons who are already registered before September 30, 2020 and are deriving business or incomes subject to final taxation, trusts, welfare institutions, non-profit organizations and such other persons prescribed by the FBR are proposed to file a profile on or before December 31, 2020, which is not extended up to March 31, 2021.
Persons who obtain their registration after September 30, 2020 are proposed to furnish such profile within 90 days of registration. In case of any change in particulars of information, such persons shall update their profile within 90 days of the change in particulars. The profile contains information relevant to income regarding bank accounts, utility connections, business premises including all manufacturing, storage or retail outlets operated or leased by the taxpayer, types of businesses and such other information as may be prescribed by the FBR.
The FBR said that if a person fails to furnish or update a taxpayer’s profile within the due date or time period as extended by the FBR under Section214A, such person shall not be included in the active taxpayers list for the latest tax year ending prior to the aforesaid due date or extended date.
However, upon filing or updating the profile, such persons shall be allowed to be placed on the active taxpayers list upon payment of surcharge which is Rs20,000 in the case of a company, Rs10,000 in the case of an association of persons and Rs1,000 in the case of an individual.
Further, a penalty for non-filing or not updating of profile is also proposed at the rate of Rs2,500 for each day of default subject to minimum penalty of Rs10,000.
