Kashif Rasheed Tax Co.

S.R.O. 428 (I)/2024. - Rules for Small Retailers: ""ONLINE INTEGRATION OF BUSINESSES", Check this Please

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*FBR issues advice for payment of Rs 7.23 billion Sales Tax refunds*

Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued an advice to the State Bank of Pakistan for making payment of sales tax refunds amounting to Rs. 7,236 million to facilitate the exports.

The payment will benefit 898 claimants involved in exports of textile, carpets, leather, sports goods, surgical instruments, rice, food items, machinery and other items. The refund has been paid against 2,637 refund payment orders issued up 30 th January, 2019.

The refund payments shall be transmitted electronically to the respective bank accounts of claimants by the State Bank of Pakistan by the close of banking hours on Monday, 4th March, 2019.

The payments have been made to all those claimants of the aforesaid categories who had provided their bank account details in IBAN format. Those refund claimants who have not provided account number in IBAN format are requested to provide the same through their user ID on FBR’s web portal.

Further, Federal Board of Revenue is conscious of the problems being faced by the businesses on account of outstanding refunds and is working on a plan to pay remaining outstanding refund claims by issuing bonds after the passage of Finance Supplementary (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019, which is presently under approval of National Assembly.

PTBA requested Finance Minister Mr. Asad Umar to withdraw Section 182A of Income Tax Ordinance in the forthcoming Supplementary Finance Bill, 2019 to encourage the potential taxpayers to pay due tax and become part of tax net even after the due dates of filing of return.

The tax bar said that on examination of current ATL on the basis of return of income tax filed for the tax year 2017, the total number of active taxpayers is 1,792,630.

It said that the finance minister himself and the government was making all-out effort to encourage bringing every person, who is liable to pay tax into the tax net.

The FBR is also putting time and energy to resolve all long outstanding issues and also amending laws to build confidence of the genuine taxpayers of the country.

The tax bar said that the Finance Act, 2018 assented on May 22, 2018 introduced penal provision of law through Section 182A of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 with the object to ensure filing of return of income within the prescribed due date.

However, it is a fact that till due date the total number of returns filed for the tax year 2018 is 1,552,287.

“The provision of law, you would observe that any person, who has or would be filing his return of income in case of individual / AOP after December 17, 2018 and in case of companies after December 31, 2018 would not be included in the ATL for the year for which return was not filed within due date,” the PTBA informed the finance minister.

The tax bar also pointed out penalty under this provision stating that it was very harsh for failure to file return within the due date.

The imposition of penalty under Section 182A of the Ordinance is nothing but levy of double penalty on the existing taxpayers for the same offence.

Article 13 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, provides protection against double punishment for the same offence. The superior courts in number of cases held that double jeopardy is unconstitutional, the PTBA said.

It said that the members of PTBA are afraid that in the presence of Section 182A of the Ordinance, we would not be able to persuade any person to file return after the due dates of filing of return, which have already passed.

The tax bar said that the provision of the law instead of encouraging potential taxpayers to become filer; would surely discourage them.

It will be another disaster like the provision of Section 214D of the Ordinance, which created huge pendency of tax audit cases approx. 1.2 million and finally the government created facility for the existing taxpayers by introducing Section 214E of the Ordinance for disposal / closure of such cases in the Finance Supplementary Amendment Act, 2018.

*Tax Amnesty for declaration of foreign and domestic income & assets extended till 31st July 2018*

Federal cabinet, on the recommendations of the Finance Minister, has approved extension of closing date of tax amnesty schemes for declaration of foreign assets and domestic income and assets till July 31st, 2018. This has been effected through a Presidential Ordinance.
The deadline for filing amnesty declarations was June 30th, 2018. However, during last week a large number of representations have been received from trade bodies, professional associations and general public for extending the closing date due to short operational period after clearing legal and procedural challenges. The extension was also needed to remove ambiguities through clarifications and explanations required to provide certainty to the general public and to ensure effective implementation of the schemes. In addition, declarants of foreign assets faced problems in the payment of tax on foreign assets and repatriation of liquid assets.
The Finance Minister recommended extension of the cut-off date for availing amnesty schemes as there has been an overwhelming demand and response which is on the rise. The date has been extended by one month to enable general p***c to file declarations for undeclared foreign assets and undeclared domestic assets and income and thereby get their tax affairs in order. It will also help the government in bringing undocumented persons, assets and income into the documented sector. Depending on flows, the schemes have potential to bring in macroeconomic and fiscal stability in the economy.