The number of income tax returns filed for tax year 2016 has increased to 1.27 million mainly due to enhance in withholding tax rates for non-filers.
According to weekly Active Taxpayers List (ATL) issued by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) the number of return filers had increased to 1.275 million by week ended October 01, 2017.
So far the number of return filers have increased by 18.25 percent when compared with 1.074 million returns filed during tax year 2015.
The concept of enhanced withholding tax rates was introduced three years back to increase the cost of transactions by non-filers and compel them declare their income and assets.
Only those taxpayers can avail reduced rate of withholding tax rates, who have filed their annual income return during the last year and their names are on the ATL. The FBR will issue tax directory for tax year 2017 in March 2018. Therefore, the reduced rate of withholding tax will only be available to those who have filed their income tax returns for tax year 2016. (Extract from The News 3 Oct,2017)