Tax return form amended: Government gives in to populist demand

Taxpayers not required to disclose expenses on personal servants, club memberships, travel and utilities.

ISLAMABAD:

The federal government on Wednesday surrendered to popular demand and decided to amend the income tax return form by dropping the condition for taxpayers to disclose expenses on personal servants, club memberships, travel and utilities.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has decided to amend Annexure D of the income tax form to pacify agitating taxpayers, said Riffat Shaheen Qazi, member Facilitation and Taxpayer Education while talking to The Express Tribune.

She said against the earlier elaborative and complicated format, the FBR has now asked taxpayers to provide total personal and household expenses.

The last date for filing income tax returns is October 31, which has been extended three times due to complications in the system.

Earlier, the taxpayers had been asked to provide details of monthly utility bills, expenses on rent, education, domestic and foreign travel, motor vehicles, club membership, drivers, servants, food, clothing, healthcare and marriages and functions.

Even genuine taxpayers protested against the FBR’s move to make the return form complicated. The finance ministry had also directed the FBR to facilitate the taxpayers instead of making the return form complicated.

FBR contractors penalised

The FBR on Wednesday also imposed penalties ranging from Rs65,000 to Rs4.2 million on companies doing business with it. These companies have either delayed refurbishment work or could not timely deliver goods to the FBR.

EMBA Corporation delayed delivery of goods and National Engineering Works, Ahmad Hussain Jagirani, Perk Engineers & Contractors and SKB failed to timely finish interior development and refurbishment work.

The FBR asked the contractors and suppliers to abide by the given timelines, failing which penal provisions as incorporated in related contract agreements will be invoked.

Tax reforms

The FBR said it is in the process of implementing tax reforms with the help of funds from the World Bank and the Department for International Development (DFID). These reforms under the tax administration reforms programme (TARP) started in January 2005 and financing of the programme would be completed by December this year. World Bank has already dubbed the project the most problematic while the government has already obtained one-year extension for its completion.

The biggest criticism against the scheme is that millions of dollars obtained for reforms were spent on buying cars, computers and furnishing offices.

The FBR said different activities were undertaken under the programme including infrastructure upgrading which included updating both information and communications technology (ICT) and physical infrastructure. Under this programme, tax offices throughout the country were upgraded through interior development and refurbishment. At 13 locations, transit accommodations were constructed.

For this purpose, after completion of the prescribed processes by the World Bank, contracts were awarded to different contractors and suppliers for completion of the job.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2011.