Tag: salary income

Salary income tax brackets to be reduced to five

KARACHI: The government is working on reducing the brackets of salary income tax to five from existing 11 besides reducing the income slabs, according to country report on Pakistan issued by International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday.

Pakistan has assured the IMF to take major initiatives in the upcoming budget 2021/2022. According to the report the Pakistani authorities assured the IMF that in the next step of tax policy reform efforts and to further support fiscal objectives, the government will introduce both a general sales tax (GST) and a personal income tax (PIT) reform with the FY 2022 budget, yielding an estimated 1.1 percent of GDP.

The government may introduce change the existing tax rate structure by reducing the number of rates and income tax brackets from eleven to five and decreasing the size of the income slabs, with a view to simplifying the system and increasing progressivity.

The authorities further pledged to reduce tax credits and allowances by 50 percent (except for Zakat and those provided for disabled and senior citizens).

Besides, they also pledged to introduce a special tax procedure for very small taxpayers, aimed at preventing further tax base erosion and facilitating the formalization of the economy.

The authorities may adopt a long-term strategy to reduce labor informality and to bring additional taxpayers into the PIT net. This reform is expected to yield 0.4 percent of GDP on an annualized basis.

For the broadening and harmonizing the General Sales Tax (GST) base, the authorities assured the IMF through its Letter of Intent (LoI) signed by the finance minister and governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) that the government will advance the reforms to our GST system, underpinned by a unified tax base and within the confines of the current constitution.

The authorities pledged the following:

(i) to eliminate all zero-rated goods (Fifth Schedule), except on export and capital machinery goods and move them to the standard sales tax rate;

(ii) remove reduced rates under the Eight Schedule and bring all those goods to the standard sales tax rate;

(iii) eliminate exemptions (Sixth Schedule) excluding a small subset of goods (i.e., basic food, medicines, live animals for human consumption, education and health-related goods) and bring all others to the standard rate; and

(iv) remove the Ninth Schedule to replace a specific tax rate for cell phones with the standard rate. These reforms are expected to yield an estimated 0.7 percent of GDP on an annualized basis.

Moreover, the government is also in the process of harmonizing the service sales tax across provincial jurisdictions, with support from the World Bank, expected to be completed by end-June 2021.

April 9, 2021
‘Salary’ explained for determination of income tax

Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 has defined the meaning of salary for the purpose of determining income of a paid employee.

The Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 updated up to June 30, 2020 issued by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) defined the salary as :

(1) Any salary received by an employee in a tax year, other than salary that is exempt from tax under this Ordinance, shall be chargeable to tax in that year under the head “Salary”.

(2) Salary means any amount received by an employee from any employment, whether of a revenue or capital nature, including —

(a) any pay, wages or other remuneration provided to an employee, including leave pay, payment in lieu of leave, overtime payment, bonus, commission, fees, gratuity or work condition supplements (such as for unpleasant or dangerous working conditions);

(b) any perquisite, whether convertible to money or not;

(c) the amount of any allowance provided by an employer to an employee including a cost of living, subsistence, rent, utilities, education, entertainment or travel allowance, but shall not include any allowance solely expended in the performance of the employee’s duties of employment;

(d) the amount of any expenditure incurred by an employee that is paid or reimbursed by the employer, other than expenditure incurred on behalf of the employer in the performance of the employee’s duties of employment;

(e) the amount of any profits in lieu of, or in addition to, salary or wages, including any amount received —

(i) as consideration for a person’s agreement to enter into an employment relationship;

(ii) as consideration for an employee’s agreement to any conditions of employment or any changes to the employee’s conditions of employment;

(iii) on termination of employment, whether paid voluntarily or under an agreement, including any compensation for redundancy or loss of employment and golden handshake payments;

(iv) from a provident or other fund, to the extent to which the amount is not a repayment of contributions made by the employee to the fund in respect of which the employee was not entitled to a deduction; and

(v) as consideration for an employee’s agreement to a restrictive covenant in respect of any past, present or prospective employment;

(f) any pension or annuity, or any supplement to a pension or annuity; and

(g) any amount chargeable to tax as “Salary” under section 14.

(3) Where an employer agrees to pay the tax chargeable on an employee’s salary, the amount of the employee’s income chargeable under the head “Salary” shall be grossed up by the amount of tax payable by the employer.

(4) No deduction shall be allowed for any expenditure incurred by an employee in deriving amounts chargeable to tax under the head “Salary”.

(5) For the purposes of this Ordinance, an amount or perquisite shall be treated as received by an employee from any employment regardless of whether the amount or perquisite is paid or provided —

(a) by the employee’s employer, an associate of the employer, or by a third party under an arrangement with the employer or an associate of the employer;

(b) by a past employer or a prospective employer; or

(c) to the employee or to an associate of the employee or to a third party under an agreement with the employee or an associate of the employee.

(6) An employee who has received an amount referred to in sub-clause (iii) of clause (e) of sub-section (2) in a tax year may, by notice in writing to the Commissioner, elect for the amount to be taxed at the rate computed in accordance with the following formula, namely: —

A/B%

where —

A is the total tax paid or payable by the employee on the employee’s total taxable income for the three preceding tax years; and

B is the employee’s total taxable income for the three preceding tax years.

(7) Where —

(a) any amount chargeable under the head “Salary” is paid to an employee in arrears; and

(b) as a result the employee is chargeable at higher rates of tax than would have been applicable if the amount had been paid to the employee in the tax year in which the services were rendered,

the employee may, by notice in writing to the Commissioner, elect for the amount to be taxed at the rates of tax that would have been applicable if the salary had been paid to the employee in the tax year in which the services were rendered.

(8) An election under sub-section (6) or (7) shall be made by the due date for furnishing the employee’s return of income or employer certificate, as the case may be, for the tax year in which the amount was received or by such later date as the Commissioner may allow.

February 28, 2021
Salary persons require retaining tax deduction certificate for six years

ISLAMABAD: A person deriving income salary is required to retain salary certificate indicating amount of salary and tax deducted for six years, sources said on Friday.

The sources said that the requirement of retaining record for six years is mandatory under income tax laws.

Similarly taxpayers deriving income from property are required to retain following records for six years:

a. Tenancy agreement, if executed;

b. Tenancy termination agreement, if executed;

c. Receipt for amount of rent received; and

d. Evidence of deductions claimed in respect of premium paid to insure the building, local rate, tax, charge or cess, ground rent, profit/interest or share in rent on money borrowed, expenditure on collecting the rent, legal services and unpaid rent.

In case taxpayers deriving income from capital gains, the following documents shall be retained for six years:

a. Evidence of cost of acquiring the capital assets;

b. Evidence of deduction for any other costs claimed; and

c. Evidence in respect of consideration received on disposal of the capital asset.

In case taxpayers deriving income from other sources are required to keep following records for six years:

a. Dividend; dividend warrants.

b. Royalty; Royalty agreement

c. Profit on debt: Evidence and detail of profit yielding debt; Evidence of profit on debt and tax deducted thereon, like certificate in the prescribed form or bank account statement; and evidence of Zakat deducted, if any.

d. Ground rent, rent from the sub-lease or land or building, income from the lease of any building together with plant or machinery and consideration for vacating the possession of a building or part thereof: Lease agreement; and lease termination agreement.

e. Annuity or pension: evidence of amount received.

f. Prize money on bond, winning from a raffle, lottery or cross word puzzle: Evidence of income and tax deducted thereon, like certificate in the prescribed form.

g. Provision use or exploitation of property: agreement

h. Loan, advance, deposit or gift: evidence of model of receipt of a loan, advance, deposit or gift i.e. by a crossed cheque or through a banking channel.

i. General: Evidence of deduction for any other expenditure claimed.

January 29, 2021

Tax collection from salary income surges by 75 percent

ISLAMABAD: Tax collection from salary increase has sharply increased by 75 percent during first half (July – December) of current fiscal year 2019/2020 owing to changes brought in tax rates through Finance Act, 2019.

According to official data, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collected Rs57.5 billion from salary income during July – December 2019/2020 as compared with Rs32.8 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.

It is pertinent to mention here that the threshold income has been enhanced to Rs600,000 for calculation of income tax for tax year 2020 as compared with Rs400,000 prevailed during tax year 2019.

The FBR issued withholding tax card for tax year 2019/2020 effective from July 01, 2019 under which every employer paying salary to employees above threshold income shall deduct withholding tax.

The FBR said that every person responsible for paying salary to an employee shall deduct tax from the amount paid under Section 149 of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.

As per Finance Act, 2019, the provisions of newly inserted 10th schedule of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 shall not apply on tax deducted under section 149. Under the Tenth Schedule the withholding tax so collected shall be increased by 100 percent in case of persons not appearing on the Active Taxpayers List (ATL).

As per Finance Act, 2019, the salary slabs as well as tax rates have been revised with effect from 01.07.2019. As such all withholding tax agents disbursing salary are required to implement the revised tax rates from the same date.

Following are the salary slabs and rates on annual salary income:

TABLE

Salary Slabs	Tax Rates on salary slabs
1. Where taxable income does not exceed Rs. 600,000.	0 percent
2. Where taxable income exceeds Rs. 600,000 but does not exceed Rs. 1,200,000.	5% of the amount exceeding Rs. 600,000
3. Where taxable income exceeds Rs. 1,200,000 but does not exceed Rs. 1,800,000.	Rs. 30,000 plus 10% of the amount exceeding Rs. 1,200,000.
4. Where taxable income exceeds Rs. 1,800,000 but does not exceed Rs. 2,500,000.	Rs. 90,000 plus 15% of the amount exceeding Rs. 1,800,000
5. Where taxable income exceeds Rs. 2,500,000 but does not exceed Rs. 3,500,000	Rs. 195,000 plus 17.5% of the amount exceeding Rs. 2,500,000
6. Where taxable income exceeds Rs. 3,500,000 but does not exceed Rs. 5,000,000	Rs. 370,000 plus 20% of the amount exceeding Rs. 3,500,000
7. Where taxable income exceeds Rs. 5,000,000 but does not exceed Rs. 8,000,000	Rs. 670,000 plus 22.5% of the amount exceeding Rs. 5,000,000
8. Where taxable income exceeds Rs. 8,000,000 but does not exceed Rs. 12,000,000	Rs.1,345,000 plus 25% of the amount exceeding Rs. 8,000,000
9. Where taxable income exceeds Rs. 12,000,000 but does not exceed Rs.30,000,000	Rs. 2,345,000 plus 27.5% of the amount exceeding Rs. 12,000,000
10. Where taxable income exceeds Rs. 30,000,000 but does not exceed Rs.50,000,000	Rs. 7,295,000 plus 30% of the amount exceeding Rs. 30,000,000
11. Where taxable income exceeds Rs. 50,000,000 but does not exceed Rs.75,000,000	Rs. 13,295,000 plus 32.5% of the amount exceeding Rs. 50,000,000
12. Where taxable income exceeds Rs.75,000,000	Rs. 21,420,000 plus 35% of the amount exceeding Rs 75,000,000″;

The FBR said that every person responsible for making payment for directorship fee or fee for attending board meeting or such fee by whatever name called under Section 149(3) of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 shall collect 20 percent of gross amount paid.

April 15, 2020

Tax collection from salary of executives, directors jumps up by 85%

KARACHI: The collection of income tax has registered sharp growth of 85 percent on salary received by executives/directors of companies.

The unprecedented growth has been witnessed due to changes in salary tax slabs introduced through Finance Act, 2019.

The collection of income tax has increased to Rs3.1 billion during first seven months (July – January) 2019/2020 as compared with Rs1.667 billion in the same period of the last fiscal year.

Sources in Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) Karachi, a collecting office of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), said that the higher tax rates on the salary income received by executives and directors of companies revised through the Finance Act, 2019 resulted in improved tax revenue under this head.

They said that the tax slab was increased to 35 percent on the salary income above Rs75 million.

The tax officials also attributed the increase in tax revenue to effective monitoring and audit of executives /directors of companies.

They said that previously directors of companies avoid taxes by taking advantage of tax laws.

The salary income has been explained in section 12 of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.

Salary.— (1) Any salary received by an employee in a tax year, other than salary that is exempt from tax under this Ordinance, shall be chargeable to tax in that year under the head “Salary”.

(2) Salary means any amount received by an employee from any employment, whether of a revenue or capital nature, including —

(a) any pay, wages or other remuneration provided to an employee, including leave pay, payment in lieu of leave, overtime payment, bonus, commission, fees, gratuity or work condition supplements (such as for unpleasant or dangerous working conditions);

(b) any perquisite, whether convertible to money or not;

(c) the amount of any allowance provided by an employer to an employee including a cost of living, subsistence, rent, utilities, education, entertainment or travel allowance, but shall not include any allowance solely expended in the performance of the employee’s duties of employment;

(d) the amount of any expenditure incurred by an employee that is paid or reimbursed by the employer, other than expenditure incurred on behalf of the employer in the performance of the employee’s duties of employment;

(e) the amount of any profits in lieu of, or in addition to, salary or wages, including any amount received —

(i) as consideration for a person’s agreement to enter into an employment relationship;

(ii) as consideration for an employee’s agreement to any conditions of employment or any changes to the employee’s conditions of employment;

(iii) on termination of employment, whether paid voluntarily or under an agreement, including any compensation for redundancy or loss of employment and golden handshake payments;

(iv) from a provident or other fund, to the extent to which the amount is not a repayment of contributions made by the employee to the fund in respect of which the employee was not entitled to a deduction; and

(v) as consideration for an employee’s agreement to a restrictive covenant in respect of any past, present or prospective employment;

(f) any pension or annuity, or any supplement to a pension or annuity; and

(g) any amount chargeable to tax as “Salary” under section 14.

(3) Where an employer agrees to pay the tax chargeable on an employee’s salary, the amount of the employee’s income chargeable under the head “Salary” shall be grossed up by the amount of tax payable by the employer.

(4) No deduction shall be allowed for any expenditure incurred by an employee in deriving amounts chargeable to tax under the head “Salary”.

(5) For the purposes of this Ordinance, an amount or perquisite shall be treated as received by an employee from any employment regardless of whether the amount or perquisite is paid or provided —

(a) by the employee’s employer, an associate of the employer, or by a third party under an arrangement with the employer or an associate of the employer;

(b) by a past employer or a prospective employer; or

(c) to the employee or to an associate of the employee or to a third party under an agreement with the employee or an associate of the employee.

February 9, 2020
Tax collection increases by 93% on salary income of executives, directors

KARACHI: The tax collection from salary income of companies’ directors has increased by 93 percent during first six months of current fiscal year.

According to Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) Karachi, the major revenue arm of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the tax collection increased to Rs2.7 billion during first half (July – December) of current fiscal year as compared with Rs1.4 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.

The tax officials of LTU Karachi attributed the increase in tax revenue under this head to revision in salary slabs in the budget 2019/2020 which is effective from July 01, 2019.

They said that the tax slab was increased to 35 percent on the salary income above Rs75 million.

The tax officials also attributed the increase in tax revenue to effective monitoring and audit of executives /directors of companies.

They said that previously directors of companies avoid taxes by taking advantage of tax laws.

The salary income has been explained in section 12 of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.

Salary.— (1) Any salary received by an employee in a tax year, other than salary that is exempt from tax under this Ordinance, shall be chargeable to tax in that year under the head “Salary”.

(2) Salary means any amount received by an employee from any employment, whether of a revenue or capital nature, including —

(a) any pay, wages or other remuneration provided to an employee, including leave pay, payment in lieu of leave, overtime payment, bonus, commission, fees, gratuity or work condition supplements (such as for unpleasant or dangerous working conditions);

(b) any perquisite, whether convertible to money or not;

(c) the amount of any allowance provided by an employer to an employee including a cost of living, subsistence, rent, utilities, education, entertainment or travel allowance, but shall not include any allowance solely expended in the performance of the employee’s duties of employment;

(d) the amount of any expenditure incurred by an employee that is paid or reimbursed by the employer, other than expenditure incurred on behalf of the employer in the performance of the employee’s duties of employment;

(e) the amount of any profits in lieu of, or in addition to, salary or wages, including any amount received —

(i) as consideration for a person’s agreement to enter into an employment relationship;

(ii) as consideration for an employee’s agreement to any conditions of employment or any changes to the employee’s conditions of employment;

(iii) on termination of employment, whether paid voluntarily or under an agreement, including any compensation for redundancy or loss of employment and golden handshake payments;

(iv) from a provident or other fund, to the extent to which the amount is not a repayment of contributions made by the employee to the fund in respect of which the employee was not entitled to a deduction; and

(v) as consideration for an employee’s agreement to a restrictive covenant in respect of any past, present or prospective employment;

(f) any pension or annuity, or any supplement to a pension or annuity; and

(g) any amount chargeable to tax as “Salary” under section 14.

(3) Where an employer agrees to pay the tax chargeable on an employee’s salary, the amount of the employee’s income chargeable under the head “Salary” shall be grossed up by the amount of tax payable by the employer.

(4) No deduction shall be allowed for any expenditure incurred by an employee in deriving amounts chargeable to tax under the head “Salary”.

(5) For the purposes of this Ordinance, an amount or perquisite shall be treated as received by an employee from any employment regardless of whether the amount or perquisite is paid or provided —

(a) by the employee’s employer, an associate of the employer, or by a third party under an arrangement with the employer or an associate of the employer;

(b) by a past employer or a prospective employer; or

(c) to the employee or to an associate of the employee or to a third party under an agreement with the employee or an associate of the employee.

January 26, 2020
Salary income to include all allowances for tax determination

KARACHI: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has said that for determination of tax the salary income shall include the value of all perquisites, allowances and benefits received by employees.

FBR officials said on Tuesday that the salaried persons should include all such income while filing their annual income tax returns, if their employers had not deducted tax on such prerequisites.

For the purposes of computing the income chargeable to tax under the head ‘salary’, the value of all perquisites, allowances and benefits provided by the employer to the employee shall be included in the said income.

The value of accommodation provided by an employer to the employee shall be taken equal to the amount that would have been paid by the employer in case such accommodation was not provided.

Provided that the value taken for this purpose shall, in any case, not be less than forty five percent of the minimum of the time scale of the basic salary or the basic salary where there is no time scale.

Provided further that where House Rent Allowance is admissible at the rate of thirty percent, the value taken for the purpose of this rule shall be an amount not less than thirty percent of minimum of the time scale of basic salary or the basic salary where there is no time scale.]

The value of conveyance provided by the employer to the employee shall be taken equal to an amount as below:- (i)

Partly for personal and partly for official use

The tax rate shall be five percent of:

(a) the cost to the employer for acquiring the motor vehicle; or,

(b) the fair market value of the motor vehicle at the commencement of the lease, if the motor vehicle is taken on lease by the employer;

For personal use only

The tax rate shall be 10 percent of:

(a) the cost to the employer for acquiring the motor vehicle; or,

(b) the fair market value of the motor vehicle at the commencement of the lease, if the motor vehicle is taken on lease by the employer; and

For the purpose of this part, “employee” includes a director of a company.

December 3, 2019
Tax collection from salary income plunges by 43pc: State Bank

KARACHI: The income tax collection from salary income has witnessed sharp decline of 43 percent during fiscal year 2018/2019 due to significant concession granted in the budget of election year.

State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in its annual report on State of Pakistan Economy 2018/2019, revealed that withholding income tax fell 43 percent to Rs76.4 billion in 2018/2019 as compared with Rs133.4 billion in the preceding fiscal year.

The overall collection of withholding taxes declined by 8.2 percent to Rs960.7 billion in the fiscal year 2018/2019 as compared with Rs1,047 billion in the preceding fiscal year.

Besides, collection of income tax from salary the collection of withholding tax from telephone also witnessed steep fall of 64 percent. The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collected Rs17.2 billion during fiscal year 2018/2019 as compared with Rs47.4 billion in the preceding fiscal year.

The collection of income tax from contracts witnessed 17 percent decline to Rs234.7 billion during the last fiscal year as compared with Rs283 billion in the preceding fiscal year.

The SBP said that the decline in withholding taxes, having a share of nearly 65.0 percent in direct taxes, came from prominent reductions in the collection from salaries, contracts, cash withdrawals, and telephone.

“While collection from salaries took a hit from concessions on income tax granted in the FY19 budget, the decline in PSDP spending lowered the collection from Contracts.”

The composition of direct taxes is quite suboptimal reflecting lack of sufficient tax effort, the SBP said.

The government relies heavily on withholding taxes, which downplays the role of revenue authorities.

Furthermore, when these taxes are treated as final and are passed on to final consumers, they gain properties of indirect taxes. Despite a large tax machinery, comprising regional tax officers, nearly 64.1 percent of the income tax is collected via withholding agents such as banks, telecom companies, utility companies and car dealers.

As for voluntary payments and collection on demand, their contribution is quite minimal. And even within the voluntary payments, around 90 percent collections are made in the form of advance tax; less than 10 percent comes through return filing.

October 30, 2019
Withholding Tax Card: Tax rates on salary income

KARACHI: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued withholding tax card for tax year 2019/2020 effective from July 01, 2019 under which every employer paying salary to employees above threshold income shall deduct withholding tax.

According to official documents made available to PkRevenue.com, the FBR said that every person responsible for paying salary to an employee shall deduct tax from the amount paid under Section 149 of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.

As per Finance Act, 2019, the provisions of newly inserted 10th schedule of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 shall not apply on tax deducted under section 149. Under the Tenth Schedule the withholding tax so collected shall be increased by 100 percent in case of persons not appearing on the Active Taxpayers List (ATL).

As per Finance Act, 2019, the salary slabs as well as tax rates have been revised with effect from 01.07.2019. As such all withholding tax agents disbursing salary are required to implement the revised tax rates from the same date.

Following are the salary slabs and rates on annual salary income:

1. Where taxable income does not exceed Rs. 600,000: the tax rate shall be 0 percent

2. Where taxable income exceeds Rs. 600,000 but does not exceed Rs. 1,200,000: the tax rate shall be 5% of the amount exceeding Rs. 600,000

3. Where taxable income exceeds Rs. 1,200,000 but does not exceed Rs. 1,800,000: the tax rate shall be Rs. 30,000 plus 10% of the amount exceeding Rs. 1,200,000.

4. Where taxable income exceeds Rs. 1,800,000 but does not exceed Rs. 2,500,000: the tax rate shall be Rs. 90,000 plus 15% of the amount exceeding Rs. 1,800,000

5. Where taxable income exceeds Rs. 2,500,000 but does not exceed Rs. 3,500,000: the tax rate shall be Rs. 195,000 plus 17.5% of the amount exceeding Rs. 2,500,000

6. Where taxable income exceeds Rs. 3,500,000 but does not exceed Rs. 5,000,000: the tax rate shall be Rs. 370,000 plus 20% of the amount exceeding Rs. 3,500,000

7. Where taxable income exceeds Rs. 5,000,000 but does not exceed Rs. 8,000,000: the tax rate shall be Rs. 670,000 plus 22.5% of the amount exceeding Rs. 5,000,000

8. Where taxable income exceeds Rs. 8,000,000 but does not exceed Rs. 12,000,000: the tax rate shall be Rs.1,345,000 plus 25% of the amount exceeding Rs. 8,000,000

9. Where taxable income exceeds Rs. 12,000,000 but does not exceed Rs.30,000,000: the tax rate shall be Rs. 2,345,000 plus 27.5% of the amount exceeding Rs. 12,000,000

10. Where taxable income exceeds Rs. 30,000,000 but does not exceed Rs.50,000,000: the tax rate shall be Rs. 7,295,000 plus 30% of the amount exceeding Rs. 30,000,000

11. Where taxable income exceeds Rs. 50,000,000 but does not exceed Rs.75,000,000: the tax rate shall be Rs. 13,295,000 plus 32.5% of the amount exceeding Rs. 50,000,000

12. Where taxable income exceeds Rs.75,000,000: the tax rate shall be Rs. 21,420,000 plus 35% of the amount exceeding Rs 75,000,000″;

The FBR said that every person responsible for making payment for directorship fee or fee for attending board meeting or such fee by whatever name called under Section 149(3) of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 shall collect 20 percent of gross amount paid.

July 19, 2019
Tax collection from salary income declines by 44 percent: State Bank

KARACHI: Tax collection from salary income declined by 44 percent due to changes in income tax rates for all income slabs, according to a report issued by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

The SBP said that during first nine-months of fiscal year 2018/2019 the tax collection on salaries remained much lower than in the same months of preceding year.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collected Rs53.5 billion as tax from salary income during July – March of Fiscal year 2018/2019 as compared with collection of Rs95.2 billion in the same period of the preceding fiscal year.

“Tax collection on salaries also remained much lower than last year. In absolute terms, tax on salaries declined by Rs 41.7 billion during the review period, mainly due to changes in income tax rates for all income slabs,” the SBP said.

Direct taxes having a share of 37 percent in overall FBR tax collection recorded a decline of 0.8 percent during Jul-Mar FY19 in contrast to a rise of 12.2 percent during the same period last year.

Measures like the suspension of tax on mobile top-ups; reduction in come tax rates on salaries; reduction in the withholding tax rate on dividends; and spending under the PSDP explain the decline in direct taxes.

Within direct taxes, major hit emerged from withholding taxes (largest contributor in direct taxes), which recorded a contraction of 8.7 percent during Jul-Mar FY19 against a rise of 16.1 percent during the same period last year.

One-half of the decline in total withholding taxes is in the category of telephone/mobiles. Collection from telephone was only Rs 5.3 billion during Jul-Mar FY19 compared to a collection of Rs 38.0 billion during the same period last year.

This lower collection from telephone/mobile phones was not surprising amid suspension of taxes on mobile phone top-up by the Supreme Court.

Receipts from contracts were also lower compared to last year largely owing to a cut in the PSDP. Voluntary payments increased by Rs 34.3 billion during Jul-Mar FY19.

July 18, 2019