The Pakistan Tax Bar Association (PTBA), a representative body of 30 bars of the country, has requested the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to extend the deadline, i.e., September 30, 2021, for filing the income tax returns and the updation of bank accounts by the taxpayers to December 31, 2021.
The PTBA, in a letter to Chairman FBR, states that it appreciates the initiative taken by FBR for enabling the form of return on July 1, 2021, for filing of a normal income tax return by individual or AOPs and the companies having calendar year. “No doubt the FBR authorities try their best to provide comfort to the taxpayers in the filing of returns, but at the same time, some challenges pertaining to the IRIS system are being faced in the shape of hacking due to international politics/system glitches.”
The letter further states that the President Lahore Tax Bar Association has also raised some legal as well as technical issues pertaining to the publication of income tax returns with a request to take up matters on an immediate basis. Moreover, a detailed letter has been written by the Karachi Tax Bar Association, in which the President KTBA has highlighted the technical errors/system glitches being faced by the tax consultants, even though he has provided proof of system errors/technical issues in the letter.
The letter reads: “The PTBA expects FBR authorities to resolve the technical issues/system errors immediately, and sufficient time for filing of income tax returns to those taxpayers who are facing the said issues should be provided.”
It is pertinent to mention here that a merchant talked to the team of Pakistan Revenue Automation Company (PRAL) the other day at the request of Member IT and discussed the issues at length the team. “Besides, you are well aware of an important amendment made through Finance Act 2021 regarding updation of business bank accounts under section II4 A of the Ordinance 2001. No doubt, the taxpayers are also required to update their business profile through the filing of Form prescribed under section 181 of the Income ‘Tax Ordinance 2001 which is also a time-consuming work burden on the part of the taxpayers and especially on the part of the tax consultants,” the letter said.
The letter further argues that due to the said profile updation, the workload of even consultants is almost double. Hence sufficient time is required for the preparation of the filing of income tax returns. “As aware that the last updation of a business bank account is also coinciding with the last date of filing of tax returns and no extension under the law is provided, we therefore earnestly request you not to enforce the implementation till December 31/12/2021 in order to provide maximum time to the taxpayers and tax consultants who are already heavily occupied in the filing of tax returns,” it explained, while concluding that: “In light of the above facts, it is requested to extend the date to December 31, 2021, for filing of returns of income tax year 2021.”
