Tag taxpayer

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday commended the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for posting an unprecedented 41 percent growth in revenue collection by March 2021.
“I commend the efforts of FBR, I even have achieved a historic growth of 41 percent in March 2021 with recorded shares of Rs460 billion,” the prime minister said during a tweet.
FBR collected about Rs322 billion in the same month last year. FBR also posted a 10 percent growth rate of Rs3,380 billion over the first nine months (July-March) in the current financial year. FBR collected Rs3,060 billion within the corresponding months of the previous fiscal year. “This reflects the broader environmental reforms that are driven by government policies,” the prime minister added.

Source: PkRevenue

Being a responsible Pakistani, if you haven’t filed your tax then you will have to face the penalties of being non-filer. According to PkRevenue , the date on which you pay your taxes has expired or you may not have the information for your return completion, or you may not have enough money to pay taxes and you may be afraid to file your return. In any case, the non-payment of taxes has serious consequences.

Those who do not file their tax will be caught sooner or later.

We have all heard many stories of income tax denials, whether they are straightforward tax dodgers or political demonstrators everyone has to face major civil penalties as well as criminal penalties of fines and imprisonment.

 Beware, the thing you were not told is that failure in filing tax returns can be very costly.

According to Tax laws:

According to Income Ordinance, 2001, tax laws define both lenient and severe penalties for the individuals who have taxable income but not paying their tax or the individuals who are registered with tax authority but their annual returns are not filed or filed after the due date.

Specification of the number of Fines and penalties :

The Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 specifies the number of fines and penalties for non-compliance. Section 114 of the Ordinance deals with the persons who are required to file their annual income tax returns and Section 116 relates to wealth-related statements.

Penalties Under Section 114:

According to section 114 the person who fails to return the required income within the due date will have to face penalties of being non-filer which are the following :

Penalties for late filing income tax	0.1% of the tax payable in respect of the defaulted tax year on each day and a maximum of 50% of the tax payable Provided that the above-mentioned fine is less than Rs. 40,000 or no tax is paid in this tax year, then such a person will have to pay a fine of Rs. 40,000 Provided that if the income amount is 75% of the income amount coming from salary and the amount of income from salary is under Rs.50 lakhs, the penalty amount, in that case, will be at least Rs.5,000
Penalties for failure to present the statement of wealth and Reconciliation of Wealth Statement	Such a person will have to pay a penalty of 0.1% per week of taxable income or Rs.100,000 whichever is excessive
Penalty for failure to submit foreign assets and income statement within the due date	An individual has to pay 2 % of the income of foreign income or assets each year
Penalty for the fake or misleading written, oral or electronic statement to Inland Revenue Authority or to an Income Tax Authority	Rs. 25,000 or 100% of tax amount whichever is higher an individual has to pay

According to section 182 A:

According to section 182 A, FBR declares that the taxpayers who will not file their returns within the due date will not appear in the active taxpayer’s list for the year the returns have been paid that person will be included in active taxpayer list only in the condition if he pays he following surcharges:

Categories of Taxpayers	Surcharges at Rupees
For Individual	1000
For Company	20,000
For an Association of a Persons	10,000

Penalties Under Section 191:

Further penalties according to the income tax ordinance under Section 191 for the person who fails to submit a notice under subsection (3) and subsection (4) of section 114 of subsection (1) of section 116. Commit a crime or offense with a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year.

More Penalties of being non-filer:

Taxpayer’s failure for presenting a return of income or wealth statement without any excuse within the period prescribed by the court is considered as a crime and is punishable according to which a person is liable to a fine, not more than fifty thousand rupees or imprisonment not more than two years, or both.

Many Pakistani National living in foreign countries may have a question arising in their mind that how overseas Pakistanis can become filer. You can find your answer here:

Do Overseas Pakistanis Have to File Taxes?

Yes, overseas Pakistanis can become filer and every foreign Pakistani has to pay their taxes based on their income in Pakistan. Like many other countries, taxation in Pakistan depends on the individual’s resident status other than the foreign country in which he/she resides. Previously, if someone was held for 183 days (or more) during the tax year, it was assumed that the tax resident would end July 1 to June 30. However, this period has been reduced to four months following the 2019 financial law. This means that for the year 2019-20, a person must remain in a foreign country for at least eight months to claim tax-free status. In addition, Pakistan residents should be aware that their income is taxed. Meanwhile, after filing tax returns for foreign Pakistanis, it is necessary to file an income tax return on income from Pakistan. Non-resident Pakistanis are not obligated to file a declaration of wealth. Foreign Pakistanis file tax returns if the Pakistan-based income is below the legal income tax threshold or in any case. If they need a valid CNIC, they file tax returns to trigger the filer benefits.

How Can Overseas Pakistanis File Tax Returns in Pakistan?

First of all, foreign Pakistanis must get NTN (National Tax Number) and it can be obtained by registering on FBR’s online portal.

You should first check the FBR filer status.

How to Check Your FBR Filer Status and NTN?

You can check the taxpayer status and the NTN using the following two methods:

1. Type ATL [space] CNIC in a message and send this message to 9966. Please note that do not add any dash, any character or extra space between the numbers because it will not be sent. In a few minutes, you will receive a text message of your taxpayer status. For this purpose, you will need a Pakistani SIM card.
2. Visit the official FBR website and go for search taxpayers in the navigation panel that shows up on the website. At the top-down menu, select Active Taxpayer (IT). Then you will be asked to type your CNIC and the verification code received in the text message. After entering the CNIC and the verification code, click on Verify and you will immediately know whether your name exists in the ATL (Active Taxpayer List) or not.

If your name is available on ATL but you don’t know the NTN number, click on the online NTN / STRN Inquiry link and get your NTN number. Meanwhile, if anyone has an NTN and no Iris login credentials, log in details can be obtained by clicking on the ‘E-Enrolment for Registered Person’.

Registration for NTN

Foreign Pakistanis, who have not filed their taxes before, are required to register themself on FBR by visiting FBR and click on the registration number. They should fill in the required details to enter the iris system.

The person who is applying for NTN should verify himself with the code sent via mobile phone or email. The person is required to verify himself as soon as possible as verification code works for a few minutes after sent to you.

After completing the ‘Registration Form’, submit it to get your NTN number.

For more information, check out our comprehensive blog ‘How to become Filer’.

Filing Tax Return for Overseas Pakistanis

First of all, log in to IRIS and then click the ‘Declaration’ menu available above. Follow the procedure described and be sure while stating your income from foreign sources in the ‘Other Sources’ section of the website.

Moreover, depending upon the months you spent in Pakistan during the financial year. Depending, choose your status as ‘resident’ or ‘non-resident’ in the ‘Active’ section and enter the required information in the input field.