Govt to Abolish Withholding Tax on Education

The government is planning to abolish withholding taxes on education in the next fiscal year’s budget, reported a national daily.

The removal of taxes is said to be done to lighten the load on the public. The government has been planning to remove unnecessary and meaningless withholding taxes for several months. Event fees are also likely to be removed from the next year’s budget.

Although withholding taxes are a significant source of revenue collection for the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), several withholding taxes generate insignificant revenue, and the government is planning to remove such headers in the upcoming budget.

According to the news report, the FBR reviewed withholding tax provisions under the Income Tax Ordinance 2001. As a result, the board will recommend about 8-10 withholding tax provisions in the upcoming budget 2021/22 for deleting from the ordinance.

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The FBR is also considering other provisions and would finalize the list before presenting the budget proposals.

Pakistan Tax Bar Association (PTBA), on several occasions, urged the FBR to ease the burden of withholding taxes on the taxpayers.

The PTBA said withholding tax regime significantly impacts the taxpayers and Inland Revenue Officers (IROs) alike.