ISLAMABAD: In a late-night decision, the government has extended until Oct 14 the deadline for filing income tax ret­urns for the tax year 2024.

The move will provide an opportunity to people, who had not filed their tax returns by the Sept 30 deadline, to fulfil the requirement.

Although the income tax ordinance specifies Sept 30 as the deadline for submitting returns, the government has regularly extended the deadline to the end of October, and beyond in some cases.

Earlier in the day, FBR officials had rejected the impression that an extension would be granted this time around. But a late-night notification said the deadline had been extended until Oct 14.

The notification said the decision had been taken in view of requests from trade bodies, tax bars and the general public.

Traders had previously requested an extension of the deadline to October 31 owing to issues with the Iris portal.

As of Sept 30, 2024, FBR has received some 3.66 million income tax returns against 1.95 million received during the same period last year, an increase of 87.9 per cent.

In the previous tax year, i.e. 2023, it had received a total of 6.24m returns.

According to preliminary statistics, 340,473 new filers entered the tax rolls between July 1 and Sept 30, 2024.

Nil filers

FBR’s major accomplishment this year is an increase in the quantity of overall returns since last year. However, nil-filers also saw a tremendous rise this tax year. These are usually submitted for one-time financial transactions or to take advantage of lower tax rates for placement on the Active Taxpayers List.

From July 1 to Sept 30, 2024, the number of nil-filers was 1.33m, accounting for 36.45pc of all returns submitted during tax year 2024. The previous year, i.e. 2023 saw 3.37m nil-returns, over half of the total number of returns filed.

To combat this trend, the government has now decided to eliminate both the non-filer and notional-filer categories.

Notional filers are people who file a return just to obtain reduced tax rates, despite the fact that they have not paid any taxes. This presents a significant challenge for the government.

It was proposed that non-filers be prohibited from engaging in any financial or investment activities and that there be a travel restriction except for Haj and Ziarat trips. The proposed approach has three tiers based on the amount filed. Non-filers cannot acquire cars, immovable property, or financial instruments or open bank accounts, except the Asaan Account.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2024