Home »Budgets » Suggestions » Budget 2017-18: FBR mulling allowing filing of quarterly statements

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  • May 21st, 2017
  • Comments Off on Budget 2017-18: FBR mulling allowing filing of quarterly statements
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is contemplating allowing filing of quarterly statements instead of monthly statements in coming budget 2017-18, it is learnt Saturday. According to sources, the proposal was discussed during recent budget meeting held in the FBR headquarters. Sources said the dates for filing monthly statements under the income tax law and payment of monthly sales tax intrude with each other, ie, 15th of each month besides the date of filing statement for sales tax returns is 18th of every month, creating excessive burden on the taxpayers.

Keeping the said in view, it has been proposed that taxpayer may be allowed to file quarterly statement instead of filing of monthly statements. Furthermore, it was also discussed during meeting that if the said was not possible in the current situation, it was recommended to change the date of filing of such statement to 25th day of the month following the month to which the withholding pertains in order to provide ample time for preparation and filing of withholding statements.

Sources said that the participants of the meeting were of the view that since, relevant tax was already deposited there would be no loss of revenue to the tax authorities from the said proposed change. They said that the provision to deposit tax collected or deducted by a person into the kitty within seven days from the end of each week ending on every Sunday enhanced the workload of tax collecting agent manifold hence it was suggested that the taxpayers should be allowed to deposit all withholding taxes collected within 7 days of the end of each fortnight to reduce the burden on withholding tax agents.

Sources said that the commissioner was empowered to recover tax due from a taxpayer under various modes including attachment and sale of property, seizure of bank accounts, imposition of penalties, additional taxes, rights to arrest of the taxpayer and taxpayer detention in prison etc. On the contrary, the mechanism of obtaining refunds of excess tax paid is not adequately taken care of. The taxpayer is required to deposit tax demand within 30 days of the service of the assessment order. In case, additions made by the assessing officer are deleted in appeals, the taxpayer is not provided any compensation. The Commissioner is empowered to recover tax due from a taxpayer under various modes. The most commonly used method is by seizing bank accounts of the taxpayer. In the past this method of recovery was used as a last recourse but in recent years this has now become a norm and often taxpayers are taken by surprise even without a prior notice of recovery under sectio138.

The taxpayer should be allowed a refund for disputed tax demand recovered and later deleted in appeals. Sources further said that it was also proposed that the show cause notices for recovery should be made mandatory before recourse to banks/debtors. In case banks are approached for recovery, the law should allow freezing of withdrawals from an account for at least a week''s time before actual recovery.



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