Taxpayers allowed to file tax returns after extension granted by CCIRs

ISLAMABAD   –   Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has clarified that taxpayers’ are allowed under the law to file annual income tax returns after the completion of the extended period granted by the Chief Commissioners Inland Revenue (CCIR).  FBR has advised the taxpayers’ to file their returns as early as possible as late filing of tax returns will only be accepted after payment of surcharge calculated as per law. It may be remembered that FBR had allowed the taxpayers’ to seek extension in date from their respective field office for filing of tax returns through online or manual way till 8th December. Special directions were issued to all the field offices in this regard to provide maximum facilitation to the taxpayers’ so that taxpayers’ could file their tax returns within time. FBR has further clarified that necessary action against those non-filers who are eligible to file tax returns will soon be initiated as per law. It is worth mentioning here that FBR has received a record number of returns along with the highest ever amount of income tax at the time of filing. A total of nearly 1.8 million returns have been filed together with an amount of about Rs.22 billion. Last year at this time, 1.73 million returns were filed while about 13.5 billion were deposited as income tax. Comparatively, the returns are higher by 4 per cent and the tax deposited is higher by 63 per cent. The government had decided not to extend the final date of December 8, 2020, to restore the credibility and predictability of the final date, and to promote tax discipline. However, to ensure that no hardship was faced by taxpayers, several special measures were adopted. These include liberal acceptance of requests for extension in filing date as available under the law, provision to file requests manually besides the on-line facility, enabling tax practitioners/advisors to file a single request for multiple clients; and enabling the chief commissioners to set-up special desks for collection of manual request and sorting their jurisdiction at their level.