Govt Attempts to Give Small Relief to Non-Filers at The 11th Hour

The federal government, just before the passage of next year’s Finance Bill, proposed some important amendments related to non-filers, wealth statements, foreign assets, and advance tax-related provisions. Sources told ProPakistani that the government on the recommendation of the Senate Finance Committee decided to give a chance to non-filers to file tax returns before going abroad. Earlier, FBR had proposed in the bill that non-filers shall not allowed to go abroad. Besides this, the government has also decided that non-filer persons can go to Umrah or Hajj whereas students are also exempted from filing tax returns. Sources said that the government has also decided to add foreign assets words in Section 116. The purpose of this is that taxpayers will be bound to mention foreign assets in their tax returns. Earlier there was some confusion in the laws related to foreign assets. Sources said that FBR on the recommendation of the Senate Finance Committee also added an explanation in the finance bill that the assets of the spouse shall only be included in the wealth statement of the person if the spouse is dependent. In addition, sources said that FBR has also proposed some changes such as transfers of cases from Commissioner Appeal FBR to Appellate Tribunal. Earlier, the government announced that cases would be transferred from Commissioner Appeal to the Income Tax Tribunal till September 2024 however now it has been proposed that the government extend the time to transfer cases from Commissioner Appeal to the Income Tax Tribunal till December 2024