509,039 late filers removed from active taxpayers list.

ISLAMABAD -- In a major development, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Tuesday announced that it had removed 509,039 late return filers for the tax year 2020 from the Active Taxpayers List (ATL) as penalty and linked their inclusion with the payment of surcharges.

The taxpayers were not included in this year's ATL as they could not file their tax returns within due date or the date extended by the respective commissioners and had not paid the ATL surcharge.

An official announcement issued here said that such taxpayers can get themselves automatically included in the ATL if they pay the necessary surcharge. The amount of ATL surcharge for companies is Rs20,000, association of persons (AoPs) Rs10,000 and for individuals Rs1,000.

The FBR encourages such taxpayers to pay respective amount of ATL surcharge and take benefits of the active list.

At the same time, the FBR has urged taxpayers to file returns for TY20 (tax year) who did not file their returns earlier to avail the benefit of ATL.

The request came from the tax machinery a couple of days after the release of total number of returns filers, which reached 2.62 million by Feb 28. For...