LAHORE: Pakistan Tax Bar Association (PTBA) has said that those persons who had made payment for availing tax amnesty scheme but failed to file their returns should be given an opportunity for compliance.
In a letter to Syed Shabbar Zaidi, Chairman, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Friday, the PTBA requested for filing of declaration under Asset Declaration Act, 2019 of persons who made payment of tax prior to deadline.
The PTBA referred to its letter sent to the chairman on September 18, 2019 on the same issue.
The tax bar said that in this regard the desired independent legal opinion was also forwarded as given by Makhdoom Ali Khan, Senior Advocate Supreme Court of Pakistan with the previous letter.
The legal opinion concluded as under:
The FBR should allow the taxpayers to file their declaration after July 03, 2019 considering –
That the scheme of the Act 2019 foresees the possibility of the late filing of declaration.
That the deadline under Section 3 is a directory provision.
That filing late return cannot be penalized if tax has been paid.
And that factually the issue arose due to a technical failure of FBR’s online system.
The FBR’s online portal should be reopened at the very least for filing of declaration of those persons who deposited the tax under the Act 2019 on or before June 03, 2019.
The PTBA said that the taxpayers, who had paid due tax under this Act, should have been allowed to file their declaration as the basic purpose of the said scheme was to facilitate the taxpayers in order to achieve the objective of documentation of economy and revival of taxation system within the country by bringing more and more people into tax net.
“Needless to say that, the taxpayers also cannot be suffer from the technical failure of the FBR system.”
The tax bar once again urged the FBR to allow the taxpayers, who had already paid due tax in this regard, to file their declaration under the Asset Declaration Act, 2019 through their e-portals.
