950805

'IT returns

impossible

on new forms'

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Leading trade bodies and even professional income tax practitioners are of the view that filing of income tax returns on new income tax forms is practically not possible while the last date, September 30, under self assessment scheme is approaching fast.

Informed sources told Business Recorder that the Peshawar Chamber, Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Gujranwala and Karachi Chambers of Commerce and Industry have approached the CBR with the request that the new income tax forms for self assessment scheme be held back at least for one year so that the tax payers could be prepared to maintain the record of information sought in the newly introduced forms. At least one year is needed to educate the tax payers to organise the requisite informations, they argued.

They said that in the new forms expenditures on telephone and electricity bills, children's tuition fees, expenditure on cars and travel abroad have to be indicated in the new forms. Since the tax payers were not used to maintaining such record they should be given time to be prepared.

The CBR, it may be mentioned, here had sought proposals and objection of the trade bodies about the new forms which have already been furnished by the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) after discussions with the affiliated bodies.

When contacted, S.M. Muneer, President, FPCCI, about the final design of the forms, simply said "after discussion with the members of the FPCCI and after getting advice from taxation experts, the modified proposals were sent to the CBR. When their reply will come, it will be duly conveyed to the affiliated members".

Meanwhile, the All Pakistan Tax Bar Association (APTBA) has conceded that although the taxation system under self-assessment scheme has been designed to broaden the tax net, the scheme is overloaded with regulations, making it difficult for the tax payers to benefit from it.

Mohammed Younus Ghazi, General Secretary, APTBA, said that one of the major difficulties for the tax payers is the introduction of new forms which are still in the making by the department while the last date for filing returns is September 30.

Another problem, he said, is the compulsion of error free inditing of these forms, as any shortcoming in the form will throw the tax payer out of the self-assessment scheme while in the previous years the tax payers used to be given one month time for providing the missing informations in the forms.