According to a press release by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), 1.78 million taxpayers filed their Income Tax Returns by December 8, 2020.
That number has further increased to 2.19 million with the addition of 377,766 returns filed from December 9 till the issuance of this press release.
Income tax paid during filing of returns stood at Rs. 31 billion. The number of Income Tax Returns for the previous year till the same period was 1.98 million, and the tax paid was Rs. 16 billion. The FBR registered a two-fold increase in the income tax paid this year, with the annual returns.
Before the December 8 deadline, a fake circular started circulating stating that the deadline for tax returns filing has been extended by the FBR. The board refuted the fake circular but did allow the taxpayers, who had already filed requests for extension, to file annual income tax returns after the completion of an extended period granted by the Chief Commissioners Inland Revenue (IR).
FBR had allowed the taxpayers to seek an extension in date from their respective field office for filing tax returns through online or manual way till December 8, 2020. The FBR issued special directions to all the field offices to provide maximum facilitation to the taxpayers to ensure timely filing of their tax returns.
This is the first time in the past several years that FBR did not allow any general extensions in the deadline for filing tax returns.
Source: Propakistani