ISLAMABAD - The government on Wednesday once again extended the deadline for filing income tax returns by the end of November after sluggish response from the people in filing their tax returns.
“The government has extended the deadline till end November for the individuals and association of persons (AOPs) but not for the companies”, said Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) spokesperson Dr Muhammad Iqbal. He informed The Nation that around 0.8 million people had filed their income tax returns by November 15. This is third time when the government is extending the deadline for filing income tax returns. The original date for filing tax returns for individuals, association of persons (AOPs) and companies was September 30, which was initially extended for one month and then till November 15 and now by the end of the current month in the hope of matching last year’s performance.
Sources in the FBR informed that the government is trying to take the number of income tax filers to the last year’s level. According to the Tax Directory 2016, around 1.21 million people, AOPs and companies had filed income tax returns in tax year 2016. However, currently only 0.8 million people had filed their income tax returns. Therefore, the government need more than 0.4 million people to file their returns to reach last year’s level.
The FBR has extended due date for filing of Income Tax Returns/Statements by salaried individuals, other individuals and AOPs, till November 30, 2017. “Extension of date has been approved by the Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on the proposal of FBR, in view of requests made by tax bars, various trade associations and members of the business community. It was felt that the taxpayers could not find ample time for filing of their tax returns. It may be recalled that in the spirit of facilitating filers, the due date was earlier extended from October 31 to November 15, 2017”, said an official handout released by the Ministry of Finance. It is however added that due date for filing of returns/statements of final taxation in case of companies has not been extended and remains November 15, 2017.
