KARACHI (May 24 2009): Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has directed its auditors to conduct income tax audit only for a year to facilitate the taxpayers, who are receiving audit notices for multiple years.
The board is of the view that issuing of audit notices for multiple years creates a sense of frustration amongst taxpayers, hence in order to rationalise the situation besides creating an atmosphere of compliance, it would be proper on the part of field formation to start audit proceedings for one year, a notification said.
The notification further said if the said audit results in substance then further may be taken up for audit under section 177 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001. In the meanwhile except for one year, the audit notices issued under section 177 for other years may be suspended. When contacted, Abdul Qadir Memon, President Pakistan Tax Bar Association (PTBA) lauded the FBR move to facilitate taxpayers.
He said that board has taken serious notice of issuance of audit notices for multiple years by the concerned tax departments under section 177 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001. He said the instructions issued in this connection would definitely facilitate taxpayers at maximum besides encouraging others to induct in tax net.
He urged the FBR to eradicate human role in the selection of taxpayers for audit completely and added that the selection should be made through computerised random balloting to maintain transparency in the process.
