ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has decided to waive off penalty for around 350,000 late filers of salaried class.
Talking with media persons during a press briefing, FBR Member Inland Revenue on Policy Dr Iqbal said that the tax machinery sent tax notices to over one million tax filers for tax year 2015, 2016 and 2017 who had filed their returns late and offered them to pay 25 percent more or pay 2 percent of their turnover.
Now the FBR has waived off penalty for around 350,000 late filers of salaried class, he added.
The FBR, he said, did not slap any new penalty on late filers of returns but it was already part of the income tax law. But an impression was created in such a way that some kind of new penalty was imposed on salaried class, he maintained.
FBR Member (Taxpayers Audit) Nausheen Javaid Amjad said that the Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited’s (PRAL) central system had issued notices to the late filers of income tax returns for audit without any manual intervention.
The notices were served electronically to the taxpayers to avoid manual processes. The notices were issued without any discrimination. Around Rs41.63 million has been collected form the 2,103 taxpayers, who have deposited the tax to avail exemption from audit. She said that the FBR is working on the new audit policy-2018 which would be issued in next few months.