Tax on above 50,000 cash transactions to be abolished for filers

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Revenue Muhammad Hammad Azhar on Friday agreed to abolish withholding tax on cash transactions for filers of tax returns.

The withholding tax on cash transactions of above Rs50,000 for tax filers is currently 0.3 percent. The state minister for revenue also assured that sales tax and withholding tax on used/second machinery will also be abolished.

Late filers would be exempted from the audit, he added. Last month, Finance Minister Asad Umar said that 1,492,507 individuals across the country filed their tax returns in the year 2018.

Umar said the number was 34 percent higher than the number of individuals who filed returns during the same period of 2017. The government, after multiple extensions, had fixed December 17 as the last date for filing tax returns.

The individuals, whose annual salary from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018 was above Rs400,000, were required to file their income tax returns along with their wealth statement for the financial year 2017-18.