KARACHI – The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has decided that late filersfor income tax returns would not be penalised due to technical andnon-technical reasons, The News reported on Sunday.
Although no one has been penalised yet, but a penalty for late filing hasbeen under discussion for a while. The last date for tax returns filing forsalaried and business individuals was December 8, 2020 whereas forcorporate taxpayers it was December 31, 2020.
By December 8, 2020, the tax body had received around 1.8 million taxreturns. By January 18, 2021, the number had risen to 2.4 million.
The FBR official said late filers could be penalised for the latesubmission, but the board would decide on a case-to-case basis, AshfaqAhmed, member of Inland Revenue Operations at FBR, told the Karachi Tax BarAssociation earlier.
Section 182 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 states the penalties for latefilers as:
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“If an individual fails to furnish a return of income, they are liable topay equal to 0.1% of the tax payable in respect of that tax year for eachday of default subject to a maximum penalty of 50% of the tax payableprovided that if the penalty worked out is less than Rs 40,000, or no taxis payable for that year, such person shall pay a penalty of Rs 40,000.
“Provided that if 75 percent of the income is from salary and the amount ofincome under salary is less than five million rupees, the minimum amount ofpenalty shall be Rs 5,000,” reads the law.
Similarly, “If a person fails to furnish a wealth statement, which ismandatory to file along with the return of income, by the due date thensuch an individual will pay a penalty of 0.1% of the taxable income perweek or Rs100,000 whichever is higher.”
