KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue has received as many as 1.38 million tax returns for tax year 2016-17
The higher rate of withholding tax on non-filers has yielded results as around 45 percent income tax returns filed after expiry of deadline.
According to latest Active Taxpayers List (ATL) – 2016 for the week ended December 31, 2017 released by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) showed 1.38 million returns filed so far as against the 0.953 million returns filed for the same tax year up to December 31, 2016.
During the past three years the FBR separated withholding tax rates for filers and non-filers and gap in these rates widened gradually during the period to increase the cost of transactions on non compliant taxpayers.
The appearance of a taxpayer on the ATL is mandatory in order to avail reduced rate of withholding tax. The existing ATL-2016 will be applicable till the issuance of new ATL – 2017, which is likely by March 2018.