2.19 million Income tax returns received so far.

ISLAMABAD -- The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Saturday claimed that it had received 2.19 million income tax returns so far.

The FBR has stated that the taxpayers', who filed income tax returns till 8th December, 2020 were 1.78 million. That number has further increased to 2.19 million with the addition of 377,766 more returns filed from 9th December till now. Income tax paid during filing of returns stood at Rs. 31 billion.

The number of income tax returns for previous year till the same period was 1.98 million and the tax paid was Rs. 16 billion. This year, there is twofold increase in income tax paid with the annual returns.

Despite a reduction in the number of income tax return filers for tax year 2020 that ended on June 30, the government had not granted any further extension in the last date for filing returns. The government had decided not to extend the final date of 8th December 2020 with a view to restore the credibility and predictability of the final date, and to promote tax discipline. However, to ensure that no hardship was faced by taxpayers, a number of special measures were adopted.

These include liberal acceptance of requests for extension in filing date as available under the law, provision to file requests manually besides the online facility, enabling tax practitioners/advisors to file a single request for multiple clients; and enabling the chief...