ISLAMABAD  -   The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR)  Separate gatherings of taxpayers, tax lawyers and tax practitioners were at Lahore and Faisalabad on Wednesday.

Nausheen Javaid Amjad, Member Taxpayers’ Audit FBR, said all those taxpayers automatically selected for audit u/s 214D due to late filing of returns for Tax Year 2015, 2016 and 2017, have now the opportunity for automatic closure of audit u/s 214E by paying the penalty or higher tax than previously filed return, whichever is applicable under the law.

Both the events were attended by among others President of All Pakistan Tax Bar Association Mr Abdul Qadir Memon, Presidents and Vice-Presidents of Lahore and Faisalabad Tax Bar Associations as well as a large number of lawyers, chartered accounts and tax practitioners.

Nausheen Javaid Amjad explained that the salaried persons or those whose income falls under the category of FTR/PTR have to pay penalty only to close their audits.

However, taxpayers whose income falls under any other head of income, have to apply for revision of returns u/s 214E in Iris system.

A tab has been made available in the system for this task. The relevant Commissioner will approve the said request within three days or the system will automatically allow revision on the fourth day.

The system will automatically calculate the tax due in both categories. Once the payment is made and relevant CPR is attached and submitted, the system will automatically close the audit proceedings.

The facility for availing automatic closure of audit u/s 214E is available till 31 Dec 2018 and approximately 1,022,000 taxpayers will benefit from it.

He further said that Section 214D under which late filers were automatically selected for audit, has been deleted from the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 in the Finance Act 2018 due to undue hardships faced by new taxpayers and to facilitate the process of Broadening of Tax Base.