ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Friday extended the last date for filing of income tax returns for tax year 2018 until Aug 9 in order to facilitate individuals who have failed to file their returns.

The FBR has extended the last date for filing of returns eight times consecutively for the last fiscal year –unprecedented in the history of the FBR.

Moreover, the filing of new returns for the tax year 2019 will commence from next month as well.

Under the Income Tax Ordinance, the last date for filing of returns for any fiscal year is end September. However, the dates have been extended to a maximum of mid of December in the past.

But in the case of tax year 2018, the last date was extended several times citing many reasons for extensions.

As per the details, last date for filing of income tax return/statement of final taxation was first extended from Sep 30, 2018 to Oct 31, 2018. It was further extended till Nov 30 and then to Dec 17, 2018.

Moreover, on Mar 16 the government extended last date for filing of income tax returns retrospectively from Dec 17, 2018 until March 31. The date was extended further to April 30 to provide additional time to individuals to file their returns.

With the announcement of the tax amnesty scheme, the government further extended the last date to June 30 to provide an opportunity to all people who planned to avail the amnesty scheme to file their returns for the tax year 2018 as well. Furthermore, after the government initiated a drive under the Benami Law to register people, the last date for filing of tax return was extended till Aug 2 in order to facilitate tax payers.

FBR has received more than 2.2 million tax returns for the first time in its history but the government has set a target of 4m income tax returns for the tax year 2019.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2019