Islamabad: The Government of Pakistan has announced that the salaried class would be exempted from the tax audit, according to a news report. It has also specified that companies would be selected only once in three years, and only if they fall on the risk parameters determined for selecting audit cases.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Revenue Haroon Akhtar said that only those taxpayers would be exempted from audit who would come under the final and presumptive tax regime. The data for this would be selected through computer balloting from about 45,000 new cases. Akhtar also specified that the General Headquarters has asked the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) to bring army personnel under the tax net.
On the other hand, the FBR has selected only 4% return filers for tax audit, whereas the government had decided to keep the number at 7.5%. Akhtar has said that the government is considering scrapping Section 214-D of the Income Tax Ordinance which will broaden the tax base and bring more companies and salaried class into this tax net.
A maximum number of 34,515 cases have been selected for non-corporate income tax returns, followed by 7,532 for non-corporate sales tax returns, while 1,499 corporate income tax cases have been selected for the audit.
Akhtar said that the tax audit will be conducted in a professional and transparent manner. He also added that the selection will be based on risk parameters, where compliant taxpayers will not be selected.
