Tag: IRIS

  • Pakistan to Announce Important Tax Return Filing Extension on September 30

    Pakistan to Announce Important Tax Return Filing Extension on September 30

    Islamabad, September 29, 2023 – Pakistan is gearing up for a significant announcement set to be made on Saturday, September 30, 2023, pertaining to the last date for tax return filing for the tax year 2023.

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  • IRIS 2.0 Breakdowns Make Return Filing Challenging, Says KTBA Convener

    IRIS 2.0 Breakdowns Make Return Filing Challenging, Says KTBA Convener

    Karachi, September 16, 2023 – The upgraded return filing portal IRIS 2.0 has faced a series of issues that are making it challenging for taxpayers to fulfill their national duty.

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  • IRIS 2.0 Disables Taxpayers from Responding to Audit and Assessment Notices

    IRIS 2.0 Disables Taxpayers from Responding to Audit and Assessment Notices

    Karachi, September 11, 2023 – A critical flaw within the digital tax infrastructure of IRIS 2.0 has come to light, causing a predicament for taxpayers who find themselves unable to effectively engage with audit and assessment notices.

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  • KTBA recommends changes in IRIS for calculating deemed income on properties

    KTBA recommends changes in IRIS for calculating deemed income on properties

    KARACHI: Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) has recommended the tax authorities to make changes in IRIS – return filing portal – to determine the fair market value of immovable properties to pay tax on deemed income.

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  • FBR launches GUI to make return filing user-friendly

    FBR launches GUI to make return filing user-friendly

    ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has launched Graphical User Interface (GUI) for making return filing user-friendly.

    The FBR on Monday said that it had launched GUI. “Taxpayers will experience modern and user-friendly interface for smooth accomplishment of tax operations,” the FBR added.

    READ MORE: FBR upgrades tax return filing portal

    The goal is to escort taxpayers through the processes in a way that shows them exactly what FBR wants them to see and understand at specific points in tax operations.

    Following upgradations have been made for better application performance and security:

    1. JDK 7 to JDK 11. 

    2. JBOSS community version 7 to JBOSS EAP 7.4.5.

    READ MORE: Tax through electricity bills not taken back: clarification

    3. Upgraded OS from Red Hat Linux Enterprise 7.9 to Red Hat Linux Enterprise 8.5.

    To improve the security standards, Web Application Firewall (WAF) has been implemented to secure IRIS from any malicious malware and hacking activities.

    Instead of single Oracle Database Exa Machine, PRAL has distributed the load to the two available Oracle Database Exa machines. To achieve this distribution on the IRIS application side, a number of significant changes have been made at architectural end. 

    READ MORE: Pakistan’s tax agency collects Rs458 billion in July 2022

    Intake of this distribution is Income Tax Return load segregated from other tax operations (Sale Tax, Withholding, Registration. Tax Collector End (Back Office etc). It will also ensure application functioning at peak efficiency and minimize business disruption.

    To ensure the stability of IRIS after above mentioned distribution, PRAL has also performed load testing activity by simulating huge concurrent number of users on IRIS application which has been successfully achieved.

    READ MORE: Karachi Customs to auction confiscated vehicles on August 11, 2022

  • FBR upgrades tax return filing portal

    FBR upgrades tax return filing portal

    The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has unveiled an upgraded version of its tax return filing portal, the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS).

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  • FBR to replace IRIS for tax payments: CCIR RTO

    FBR to replace IRIS for tax payments: CCIR RTO

    KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to introduce a new and efficient system for payment of all kind of tax payments, said a top tax official.

    “We will introduce a new and efficient system replacing IRIS in which all kinds of taxes can be easily paid in one place,” a press statement quoted Tariq Mustafa Chief Commissioner Inland Revenue, Regional Tax office (RTO) Karachi as saying on Wednesday.

    According to the statement issued by Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) the CCIR said that it was not the policy of FBR to impose more burden on the taxpayers.

    The RTO Chief said that the issues raised by KATI would not only improve the regional tax office but also benefit the FBR. He said that after 2013, tax refund payments were in a halt. Under the current system, there is no problem of refunds.

    Refunds are now paid immediately through the modern automated system, we are hold accountable for non-payment of refunds.

    KATI members can contact me for any complaint regarding FBR. My doors are open to all members, he said.

    KATI President Salman Aslam, KATI CEO Zubair Chhaya, Tax Liaison Committee Chairman Masood Naqi, Senior Vice President Maheen Salman, Former Presidents Saleem-uz-Zaman, Tariq Malik, Farhan-ur-Rehman, Rashid Siddiqui, Johar Qandhari, Ehteshamuddin, Syed Farukh Mazher and a large number of other members including were present.

    Earlier, KATI President Salman Aslam welcomed the arrival of Chief Commissioner Inland Revenue Tariq Mustafa in KATI and said that the industrialists were concerned over the reports of freezing the accounts of defaulters. He said that to increase further revenues tax net needs to be widened, adding that harassment of taxpayers would not increase revenue.

    President KATI said that new policies should be formulated to facilitate the tax system so that the industrialists consider paying taxes without any fear as a national duty.

    KITE CEO Zubair Chhaya said that, we have been made withholding agent without any compensation and instead of encouragement, we have been issued monitoring notices from 2014 to date.

    The government should encourage withholding agents. He said that in terms of filers and non-filers, non-filers save their lives by paying extra tax once while filers go through various notices and audits despite paying taxes.

    A policy should be formulated in consultation with the stakeholders to widen the scope of taxation.

    Facilities should be provided to the industrialists of Karachi so that the industries can be promoted and the national revenue can be further increased.

    On the occasion, Chairman Tax Liaison Committee Masood Naqi said that a focal person should be appointed to facilitate the industrialists of Korangi and FBR who could provide immediate assistance to the members of KATI.

    He said freezing accounts and imposing heavy fines would discourage taxpayers as they would not be able to pay heavy fines due to the post-COVID economic crisis.

  • KTBA highlights problems in FBR’s online correspondence system

    KTBA highlights problems in FBR’s online correspondence system

    KARACHI: Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) on Tuesday pointed out various problems in the online correspondence and notice system of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

    Muhammad Zeeshan Merchant, President, KTBA sent a letter to Dr. Muhammad Ashfaq Ahemd, Member Inland Revenue (Operations) for early removal of difficulties to facilitate taxpayers.

    The tax bar held a meeting on October 17, 2020 with the Member IR Operations and discussed the issues. The Member had asked the tax bar to identify and submit a brief list of issues being faced by the taxpayers in general in respect of IRIS notice and subsequent correspondence.

    The tax bar in its instant letter said that the mechanism for online correspondence available on the IRIS web portal for the compliances of Income Tax audits / assessments, covers the whole catena of proceedings, right from the issuance of notices, show cause notices to the final assessment order / notice of tax demand takes place on the above given online web portal of the FBR. This has been in vogue from the Tax Year 2014 and onwards.

    The KTBA identified following issues in the online correspondence system of the FBR:

    1) NEW NOTICE / CORRESPONDENCE:

    Presently, as per the applicable features of the web portal, all the notices and new correspondence from the tax authorities are expected to appear under Tab / Caption “Inbox”.

    As soon as any online notice / correspondence is made available in the inbox of the taxpayer online ID, it is expected that a separate intimation is issued to notify the development through SMS on the registered cell phone number and on the registered Email ID of the taxpayer. Although, this procedure is being followed in some cases, however, we expect that the same should be followed in all the cases.

    2) FOLLOW-UP NOTICE / ASSIGNMENT / CORRESPONDENCE:

    As mentioned above, the Email and SMS are being sent in some cases where fresh/new notices are issued, however, this feature of notification through SMS and Email is apparently limited to the development made through inbox only, which means that any subsequent development made by the tax officer through creation of task assignment feature or otherwise, is not presently being notified through SMS and Email.

    The absence of this notification, understandably, is creating a severe hardship to the taxpayers and the same is actually resulting in hindrance in ensuring the requisite timely compliance of these notices including but not limited to show-cause notices.

    Based on recent experiences of both KTBA Members and the taxpayers, the date of compliance of notice is generally fixed through assignment of notice (i.e. without any notification through SMS, Email and Registered Post/Courier) instead of a notice / letter in inbox, which has resulted eventually in completely unwarranted ex-parte orders in certain cases.

    The tax bar said that the issue can be resolved conveniently if all the correspondence are made by the concerned tax officers mandatorily through inbox feature with a proper notification to the taxpayer through SMS, Email and Registered Post/Courier or if a similar feature of notification through SMS and Email is linked to the assignment of notice as well and there must be a pop-up window with “New Correspondence Available” with link of the destination mentioned in the pop-up window.

    3) CREATION OF NEW TASK IN ASSIGNMENT IS NOT AVAILABLE NOW WHICH PREVIOUSLY WAS AVAILABLE:

    Recently, we have noted that under the “Assignment Tab” of follow-up correspondence, although there is an option for the taxpayers to reply, however, the new task could not be created which is resulting in non-compliance on IRIS system. The taxpayers are then compelled to submit a manual reply which is causing hindrance and the compliance does not reach to the concerned tax officer in time.

    Similarly, there is no option of partial compliance in the IRIS system. Presently, there is an option for adjournment or reply only, which sometimes creates problems in making compliances in a phased-wise manner for the taxpayers.

    4) ATTACHMENT – FILE SIZE AND FILE FORMAT:

    Another limitation which is generally being faced while e-filing the online response on the web portal is that the attachment size cannot exceed 5 MB file size (for a single file). Further, JPEG or any editable file format can only be attached on the web portal while filing a response through a assignment tab which means that other format (including PDF) cannot be attached. The said limitation are creating nuisance to the taxpayers.

    5) ONLINE SUBMISSION VIA ASSIGNMENT TASK

    Presently, there is no separate “submit button” available for submission of online response via assignment tab on the web portal. The response through assignment tab is submitted as soon as the response is saved online on the web portal, which creating nuisance to the taxpayers.

    6) CORRESPONDENCE IS NOT REACHING TO THE CONCERNED TAX OFFICER ON IRIS

    The bar members informed the tax bar that the reply submitted online on the IRIS web portal in response to a notice issued by a particular tax officer is delivered to another tax officer on the web portal due to certain technical issue. Thus, the compliance of the notice is apparently not reaching to the relevant tax officer for review and perusal. The same is resulting in an unnecessary hassle to the taxpayers and an uncertainty regarding the compliance of the notice.

    SOLUTION / RECOMMENDATION:

    Keeping in view the severity of the aforementioned grave issues and the resulting adverse consequences to the taxpayers, the KTBA urged the Member to urgently intervene and issue necessary instructions to all the tax offices for issuance of all the correspondence (including notice / letter) exclusively through inbox feature only with a mandatory intimation to the taxpayer through SMS, registered Email and registered post/courier.

  • Return filing facilitation: FBR issues procedure to reset, change password on IRIS portal

    Return filing facilitation: FBR issues procedure to reset, change password on IRIS portal

    KARACHI: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued procedure to reset and change password on IRIS portal in order to facilitate taxpayers in filing their income tax returns for tax year 2020.

    The FBR issued the procedure to facilitate taxpayers as many persons failed to access their accounts on IRIS after a lapse of time because of forgetting the password.

    To re-set a new Password, follow these steps:

    — Access Iris log-in Screen at the following URL: https://iris.fbr.gov.pk/infosys/public/txplogin.xhtml

    — Click “Forgot Password” Link under the log-in Dialog

    — “Forgot Password” Dialog will open

    — Enter data in all Fields

    — Click “Submit” Button

    — Click on the Link sent at the given email

    — Enter data in the Dialog

    — Click “Submit” Button

    To change Password, follow these steps:

    — Login to Iris

    — Click “Change Password” Link on top right of the screen

    — “Change Password” Dialog will open

    — Enter current Password

    — Enter new Passwords

    — Confirm new Password

    — Click “OK” Button

    To change PIN, follow these steps:

    — Login to Iris

    — Click “Change PIN” Link on top right of the screen

    — “Change PIN” Dialog will open

    — Enter new PIN

    — Confirm new PIN

    — Click “OK” Button

    A taxpayer gets Password and PIN when he completes first part of the Registration process. However, he cannot start any task unless he completes second part of the Registration process by submitting the Form of Registration after completing data entry and attaching the required documents.

    To e-enroll yourself, follow these steps:

    — Access Iris log-in Screen at the following URL:

    — Click “E-Enrollment for Registered Person” Link under the log-in Dialog

    — “E-Enrollment” Dialog will open

    — Enter data in all Fields

    — Click “Submit” Button

    — Enter verification code received on email in the relevant Field

    — Enter verification code received on Cell No. in the relevant Field

    — Click “Submit” Button

    — You will receive Password and PIN on your email and Cell No.