Member Taxpayer Education and Facilitation Habib Fakhruddin told Business Recorder on Monday that the exercise was neither desk, nor parametric audit under the Universal Self-Assessment Scheme (USAS).
"It is merely 'desk-review' to scrutinise returns/statements for making technical corrections wherever needed." No information pertaining to taxpayer's income or source of income would be demanded. However, if the taxpayer has wrongly calculated tax on the basis of data/attachments provided by him, accurate arithmetical calculations would be applied to rectify these mistakes.
The CBR has also issued instructions to field formations to examine the returns with the tax record and attachments provided by taxpayers for completing the missing particulars.
Habib said that the department would issue letters to taxpayers for obtaining missing information or short documents in case of any discrepancy in the returns. The taxpayer would have to submit the documents/information within 15 days of receipt of the letter. Non-compliance of the letter would make the return invalid under section 120 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001.
Member Taxpayer Education and Facilitation said that checking of returns would be done on the basis of restricted parameters or checklist communicated to field formations. General instructions to field formations give a detailed method of checking returns, while procedure for checking vital information and attachments has also been elaborated.
Under the exercise, the income tax officials would ensure that the computerised national identity card (CNIC) number mentioned on the return must comprise 13 digits, excluding the dashes. Some taxpayer still provide NIC number instead of CNIC. The NIC should comprise 11 digits. The field formations would also check the National Tax Numbers (NTNs).
Tax officers would also ensure that the name of individual/ Associate of Person (AOP), residential address and business address is legible and completed. Zone/LTU/MTU code, NTN, CNIC appearing on main return form should be written invariably on each and every annexure attached, the staff should complete it wherever found missing.
Wherever amount is mentioned in millions or thousands in the returns, the officials should convert the amount into rupees.
The information about the 'tax already paid including adjustment' is a vital information to ascertain the refund amount. Thus, field formations should give special attention to this column to ensure that all necessary documents/evidences of payments are attached and correct amount is reflected in the relevant column of the returns/annexures.
In case of taxpayer deriving income from profession/services (not involving trading of goods) the amount of receipts is correctly mentioned in the returns.