Pakistan Tax Advisors Association (PTAA) has called for extension in date of filing of income tax returns/wealth statements to December 15, 2017 instead of November 15, 2017. According to a communication of Chairman PTAA Javed Iqbal Qazi to Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Tariq Pasha, the return in respect of limited companies was put on the web on 19.10.2017, while the return for individuals and association of person was loaded officially on the net on 28.09.2017; which definitely is not a sufficient time allowed for filing, as compared to 90 days allowed by law.

All the tax practitioners, chartered accountants and advocates engaged in the profession of taxation are busy in the preparation of tax returns of their clients and as per information till date less than 50% of total returns have been e-filed, while for balance of all the returns they are striving hard but cannot achieve the target due to late providing of tax return forms on the system and non-operation of the website due to heavy load (probably due to lack of domain width). Furthermore, due to prevailing uncertain political situation in the country, the taxpayers are undecided and hesitant in coming forward for filing/submission of returns by the due date.

"We expect that about 750,000 returns will be filed by 15.11.2017, which is almost 50% of the expected returns due for tax year 2017. We have already requested the chairman Federal Board of Revenue, Islamabad for extension of time but till date no action has been taken by him in this regard," the letter said. It is the duty of the federal government to facilitate the public/taxpayers and it is, therefore, most respectfully prayed that the chairman Federal Board of Revenue be directed to extend the date of submission of returns to 15.12.2017, instead of 15.11.2017 in the best interest of justice and fair play, Qazi added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017