Taxpayers demand extension in return filing date

KARACHI: A large number of taxpayers failed to file their September sales tax returns due to technical glitches and other problems on the revenue board’s official portal, and demanded for an extension to comply with their responsibility.

Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) President Zeeshan Merchant on Monday in his letter to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) pointed out that the board’s official portal remained non-functional during the two days prior to the due date, making it difficult for taxpayers to file their monthly sales tax returns. The due date to file sales tax returns was October 18, 2020. There was no provision to seek an extension in the system for filing the returns after the due date.

In his letter, he said that the FBR web-portal was not responding for the past many days, and became totally non-functional on Saturday, October 17 and Sunday October 18.

The KTBA president highlighted another issue that created difficulties in filing of sales tax returns. He said that taxpayers were unable to find the option for payment of tax directly through their own bank accounts and/or were unable to see the status of paid amounts on the IRS portal.

“Many of CPRs which were paid by using Alternate Delivery Channel (ADC)-Payment option were not reflecting in banks folders, and consequently taxpayers were unable to upload their tax challans, and were unable to e-file the sales tax return for the tax period September 2020,” he added. Merchant said that the bar members and taxpayers were upset due to this situation as there was no provision available for seeking extension to file monthly sales tax returns.

He urged the FBR chairman to extend the date of e-filing for the tax period September 2020 at the earliest to facilitate bar members and compliant taxpayers.