VCheng
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The irony is strong with this one:
It’s official: Even tax collectors don’t pay tax - thenews.com.pk
It’s official: Even tax collectors don’t pay tax
Umar Cheema
Thursday, September 25, 2014
ISLAMABAD: If lawmakers impose taxes upon others without paying their own taxes, then the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) can also acknowledge having officers who collect taxes from others but don’t pay their own.
There were approximately 1,000 tax officers who didn’t file returns for the tax year 2013. As they were warned against financial penalties through a deduction in salaries, many of them did the needful. Nevertheless, the FBR has failed to purge itself of tax defaulters who still exist in its rank and file. Responding to an information request filed by The News, filed under the Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002, the FBR said there were as many as 77 staff members who had taxable incomes but did not file tax returns last year, while the filing date of the tax year 2014 is also going to expire by the end of this month.
A follow-up question to Shahid Asad, the FBR spokesman, further revealed that a portion of the salary of officers not filing tax returns had been withheld and would continue to be blocked unless they submited their returns. He said the non-filing tax officers were in the hundreds just a few months ago but were now reduced to 77. The FBR staffers are offered an allowance called the Internal Job Posting allowance that has been withheld for the non-filing officers.
There are around 23,000 employees of the FBR and 13,000 of them have taxable incomes. As their record was checked in April this year, according to an FBR official, the authorities discovered around 1,000 tax extra allowance of non-filers forced many non-filers to fulfill their legal requirement but 77 are still offending tax law.
According to section 115(1) of Income Tax Ordinance 2002, says where the salary/other income for the tax year is Rs 50,000 or above, the taxpayer shall file return of income tax electronically in the prescribed form and it shall be accompanied by the proof of deduction of payment of tax and wealth statement.
Contrary to this legal requirement, around one and a half percent Pakistanis are registered with tax authorities for National Tax Number and a fraction of them files tax returns. In tax year 2013, approximately 800,000 NTN-holders filed tax returns and half of them reported zero earning, a routine practice to avoid taxes under such pretexts. Included among them are lawmakers, lawyers and top earners in different fields. They are apart from those who don’t even bother to file tax returns, let alone those out of tax net. A close relative of a top tax collector was featured in the FBR’s list of those 3.5 million Pakistanis who are out of tax net. He lives in posh area of Islamabad, frequently travels abroad but doesn’t pay a penny as income tax.
As for the information request to FBR, The News filed it to the Chairman FBR on July 23 this year under Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002 and asked for the number of staff having taxable income but don’t file tax returns. FBR didn’t provide the desired information within 21 working days as has been prescribed in FOI Ordinance for granting the requested details.
An appeal was filed with the Federal Ombudsman. It was prayed that FBR be asked to provide the information in compliance with FOI Ordinance. Generally, government departments tend to ignore the rulings of the Ombudsman as it is a recommendatory body without having any power to ensure the implementation of its directives. In many cases, the departments handed adverse ruling go in appeal to the President against the Ombudsman’s decision.
However, what happened in this case was contrary to the prevailing practices. As the date was fixed, a diligent FBR officer, Asim Khattak, representing his department sought a week-time to ensure the provision of information. Khattak said he was recently assigned this task of dealing with the information requests and the ombudsman office and promised to handover the requested details within a week and finally did so on September 23.
It’s official: Even tax collectors don’t pay tax - thenews.com.pk
It’s official: Even tax collectors don’t pay tax
Umar Cheema
Thursday, September 25, 2014
ISLAMABAD: If lawmakers impose taxes upon others without paying their own taxes, then the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) can also acknowledge having officers who collect taxes from others but don’t pay their own.
There were approximately 1,000 tax officers who didn’t file returns for the tax year 2013. As they were warned against financial penalties through a deduction in salaries, many of them did the needful. Nevertheless, the FBR has failed to purge itself of tax defaulters who still exist in its rank and file. Responding to an information request filed by The News, filed under the Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002, the FBR said there were as many as 77 staff members who had taxable incomes but did not file tax returns last year, while the filing date of the tax year 2014 is also going to expire by the end of this month.
A follow-up question to Shahid Asad, the FBR spokesman, further revealed that a portion of the salary of officers not filing tax returns had been withheld and would continue to be blocked unless they submited their returns. He said the non-filing tax officers were in the hundreds just a few months ago but were now reduced to 77. The FBR staffers are offered an allowance called the Internal Job Posting allowance that has been withheld for the non-filing officers.
There are around 23,000 employees of the FBR and 13,000 of them have taxable incomes. As their record was checked in April this year, according to an FBR official, the authorities discovered around 1,000 tax extra allowance of non-filers forced many non-filers to fulfill their legal requirement but 77 are still offending tax law.
According to section 115(1) of Income Tax Ordinance 2002, says where the salary/other income for the tax year is Rs 50,000 or above, the taxpayer shall file return of income tax electronically in the prescribed form and it shall be accompanied by the proof of deduction of payment of tax and wealth statement.
Contrary to this legal requirement, around one and a half percent Pakistanis are registered with tax authorities for National Tax Number and a fraction of them files tax returns. In tax year 2013, approximately 800,000 NTN-holders filed tax returns and half of them reported zero earning, a routine practice to avoid taxes under such pretexts. Included among them are lawmakers, lawyers and top earners in different fields. They are apart from those who don’t even bother to file tax returns, let alone those out of tax net. A close relative of a top tax collector was featured in the FBR’s list of those 3.5 million Pakistanis who are out of tax net. He lives in posh area of Islamabad, frequently travels abroad but doesn’t pay a penny as income tax.
As for the information request to FBR, The News filed it to the Chairman FBR on July 23 this year under Freedom of Information Ordinance 2002 and asked for the number of staff having taxable income but don’t file tax returns. FBR didn’t provide the desired information within 21 working days as has been prescribed in FOI Ordinance for granting the requested details.
An appeal was filed with the Federal Ombudsman. It was prayed that FBR be asked to provide the information in compliance with FOI Ordinance. Generally, government departments tend to ignore the rulings of the Ombudsman as it is a recommendatory body without having any power to ensure the implementation of its directives. In many cases, the departments handed adverse ruling go in appeal to the President against the Ombudsman’s decision.
However, what happened in this case was contrary to the prevailing practices. As the date was fixed, a diligent FBR officer, Asim Khattak, representing his department sought a week-time to ensure the provision of information. Khattak said he was recently assigned this task of dealing with the information requests and the ombudsman office and promised to handover the requested details within a week and finally did so on September 23.
