PM Shehbaz to Personally Take Final Decision on Extending Return Filing Date Today

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will take the final decision on the expected extension in the filing of income tax returns. The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is likely to extend the deadline for the submission of tax returns by 15 15-day period. So far, the FBR has not taken a final decision in this regard. Meanwhile, the business community has also met Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir seeking an extension in the period for filing income tax returns. In an urgent communication to the FBR Chairman, the Pakistan Tax Bar Association said that compliant taxpayers are facing problems in filling their income tax returns due to the inefficient and slow working of the IRIS system. It is pertinent to mention here that as a result of the slow working of IRIS-compliant taxpayers not only unable to process and file returns. The bar received constant complaints from across the country that the system shut down after 12 AM till 4 AM on a daily basis and is also not properly working/slow working throughout the day. The system does not account for AOP-exempt income instead calculates tax on total income including income of AOP which has already been taxed. A long outstanding issue, which has been pending for the last two years that the system is calculating the difference between minimum tax and normal tax liability and adding the same in the tax liability even in the case where only minimum tax is payable There are incorrect computational issues and the system not picking up paid challans on IRIS. The data disappears after completion of feeding which results in wasting time by again feeding of data once they restart the system after hanging up the same. In the cases of multiple challans, CPR is not reflected in MIS. The non-residents’ last year’s wealth is still appearing/noneditable. The salary income with one-off service receipt, IRIS is asking to file a profit & loss Account, Balance sheet, and attachment of Accounts. Last but not least, as IRIS hasn’t been working for the last two days till now, it is imperative to extend the date of filing from September 30, 2024, till FBR provides smooth and swift IRIS system to the taxpayer, for filing tax returns. However, without prejudice to the above, we expect from FBR that it should also provide relief to taxpayers by giving them at least a 30-day extension to provide reasonable time to file tax returns with proper disclosures and peace of mind, PTBA added.