ISLAMABAD: In principle, the government has decided against extending the 2024 tax year’s income tax return filing date.
Previously, the return submission date was extended to October 31. It was previously extended to October 14.
Rashid Mahmood Langrial, the chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), told Dawn on Thursday that the deadline would not be extended further.
The Income Tax Ordinance states that tax returns must be filed by September 30.
Up 77.47 percent, the FBR received 5.129 million income tax returns until October 31 compared to 2.890 million during the same time last year.
A total of 6.675 million income tax returns were received in TY2023.
However, as filers used to file their returns with penalties until March or even mid-June, the FBR anticipates handily surpassing last year’s amount. Between July 1, 2023, and October 31, 1.3 million new return filers enrolled in the tax system, according to preliminary statistics received by the FBR.
Until October 31, the tax payment with returns for the tax year 2024 was Rs130.60 billion, up 73.80% from Rs75.141 billion during the same period the previous year.
Null-filers
Between July 1 and October 31, there were 1.994 million nil-filers, or 39 percent of all returns filed. There were 1.01 million nil-filers in the tax year 2023, which made up 35% of all returns (2.890 million) filed.
Over the course of the 2023 tax year, 6.675 million returns were filed. Of these, 3.676 million, or 55% of the total returns, were nil returns.
The main achievement of the FBR is the notable rise in the total number of returns compared to the previous year. On the other hand, the situation of nil-filers significantly worsened. For one-time financial transactions or to benefit from reduced tax rates, zero returns are filed in order to be added to the Active Taxpayers List.
