FBR sees 1.5 million active taxpayers in six months

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has estimated that the number of active taxpayers will grow to 1.5 million within six months following the launch of action against non-filers of annual income tax returns, official sources said on Friday.

A senior FBR official said currently the Active Taxpayers List (ATL) – 2016, which is implemented from March 1, 2017 and would remain applicable during the year until the issuance of the new ATL, contained the details of 1.01 million return filers, who filed their returns for tax year 2016.

The last updated ATL-2015 issued Monday, February 27 contained the name of 1.21 million return filers, showing a gap of 200,000 active taxpayers when compared with the fresh ATL. The official said the gap would be filled as about 0.2 million return filers were added to ATL-2015, from its first issuance in March 2016.

The official said the FBR had prepared the list of 0.2 million non-filers and already started sending notices to them. “Due to enforcement of applicable laws, number of return filers has increased significantly,” the official added.

The FBR had estimated about 1.8 million active taxpayers for tax year 2016. The official said it would be achieved before the issuance of next year’s ATL. In the past two months, the FBR issued scores of notices asking taxpayers to file their returns along with asset declaration. During the proceedings, the FBR also raided taxpayers’ premises for obtaining record of income from non-filers, besides freezing bank accounts.

The business community has strongly protested the drive of the FBR and demanded that such action by the tax departments was conducted without documentary evidences.

The FBR, however, after meeting with representatives of the business community announced that no raids would be conducted without documentary evidence.  But the FBR made it clear that the audit proceedings would continue across the board.

In a statement issued on Friday, the FBR chairman clarified that he had not issued any statement related to suspending audit proceedings for one month. The FBR official said the actions against non-filers were being taken under the law, which would contain issuance of notice, prosecution, arrest, and imprisonment.

As per Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 the non-filers of income tax return would be selected automatically for audit in case a taxpayer failed to file his return after tax year 2015.