A total of 149,700 sales tax registered taxpayers are depositing zero sales tax along with their monthly sales tax returns.
These are “nil-filers” (no sales tax payable with returns) and null-filers (no business activity/transaction and no sales tax paid) of sales tax returns, but they are sales tax registered taxpayers out of total 312,800 registered persons with the FBR.
The data of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) showed that the total persons registered for sales tax are 312,800 and persons who filed sales tax returns are 189,700, reflecting a compliance level of 61 percent.
Out of these who filed sales tax returns, “null filers” stood at 59,800. The number of “Nil “filers stood at 89,900. The sales taxpayers, who filed returns with payment amounted to 41,000.
The companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) as of June 2022 totalled 169,059 and tax returns filed by companies for tax year 2023, stood at 91,135. Therefore, the level of compliance by the corporate sector is merely 46 percent.
The total number of individuals and association of persons (AOPs)/companies registered with the FBR totalled 11 million. The number of returns filed by these individuals/AOPs as on March 1, 2024, for tax year 2023 is 3,350,000. The compliance level is 30 percent, showing a poor trend of return filing by these individuals/AOPs/companies.
The data further revealed that the drop in the number of old taxpayers filing returns is 66.2 percent.
The data further revealed that the total number of persons displayed on the Active Taxpayer List (ATL) 2022 stood at 5,730,000. The total number of persons covered under the ATL 2023 totalled 3,350,000.
Out of 3,350,000 return filers in 2023, the new income tax return filers were 840,000. Thus, the number of filers is 2,510,000 for the tax year 2023 when compared with 2022.