FBR briefs World Bank on tax reforms

Last updated on: 19 April,2019 12:40 pm

The FBR apprised the World Bank on the reduction of income tax rate from 25 percent in tax year 2018

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has informed the World Bank (WB) that it had launched e-payment of taxes through alternate delivery channels which came into effect since March 2018.

This was briefed in a meeting a meeting held between Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and World Bank team on the tax reforms introduced by FBR for medium and small sized companies on Ease of Doing Business.

The meeting was attended by Chief (BDT-IT) Abbas Ahmed Mir and Secretary (BDT-IT) Ms Saba Ijaz from FBR side. It was informed that through alternative delivery channels, the taxpayers can now pay their taxes through automated teller machine, internet banking or mobile banking which has saved taxpayers time and resources.

The FBR apprised on the reduction of income tax rate from 25 percent in tax year 2018 to 24 percent in tax year 2019 for the small companies.

Income tax rate will keep on reducing by 1 percent every year till 2023 when it will be 20 percent, it added. On the subject of audit selection of cases, the World Bank team was informed that the FBR has carried out parametric selection of cases using new business intelligence tools.

The process has significantly reduced the number of cases selected for audit, it said. In Audit Policy 2017, the FBR selected 7.5 percent cases for audit out of the total filers. However, in Audit Policy 2018, FBR has selected 2.3 percent of income tax cases and 2.5 percent of sales tax cases for audit out of the total filers.

The FBR officers also clarified the sales tax law relating to capital asset purchase and adjustment of input tax under section 8B of Sales Tax Act 1990.