KARACHI: A large number of taxpayers may file their annual income tax returns while taking advantage of date extension up to March 31, 2019, tax manager said.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) recently extended the last date for filing income tax return for tax year 2018 up to March 31, 2018, which was December 15, 2018 for salary, business individuals, taxpayers falling in final tax regime and companies having special tax year.
Similarly, the date was also extended for corporate units up to March 31, 2019, whose last date was December 31, 2018.
The tax managers said that due to burden and restrictions on non-filers under Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 a huge number of individuals and companies would file their income tax returns for tax year 2018 to appear on Active Taxpayers List (ATL).
They said that the non-filers have been restricted in purchasing immovable properties over Rs40 million and registration of imported motor vehicles.
Further, the non-filers are also required to pay higher percent of withholding tax on various transactions. The non-filers in the recent mini-budget allowed to purchase and register new locally assembled motor vehicles. However, the withholding tax rates on non-filers have been increased by 50 percent.
The ATL issued by FBR on March 01, 2019 for tax year 2018 carried list of 1.59 million active taxpayers. In contrast the ATL for the tax year 2017 had carried 1.84 million active taxpayers, which showed about 240,000 taxpayers were not on the new list.
With the extension of date up to March 31, 2019 the return filers would not require to pay penalty and also become eligible for appearing on the ATL.
To some estimates the recent date extension by the FBR around 250,000 to 300,000 more returns would be added to the current active taxpayers list.
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