Tax fair on Nov 01-07 ahead of month-end return submission deadline

Government's revenue authority will hold income tax fair in the first week of November at its new headquarters ahead of the November 30 cut-off time for taxpayers to pay their taxes or penalty thereafter.
Officials said the National Board of Revenue (NBR) will hold the IT fair on November 01-07 at its Agargaon Rajaswa Bhaban (revenue building) to facilitate income taxpayers pay income tax, submit tax returns and gather knowledge about income tax-related issues.
The NBR will hand over tax cards to the top taxpayers, both in individual and corporate categories, and also award district-level highest and long-term taxpayers on November 24.
In the run-up to the November 30 Income Tax Day, income tax week will be arranged at the field-level income tax offices across the country on November 24- 30.
Talking to the FE, income tax (administration and human resource development) member Abdur Razzaque said the IT day will be celebrated on November 30 as per new provisions in the budget approved by Parliament.

"The income tax day has been shifted from September 15 to November 30 through the budget for fiscal year 2016-17. Tax day would be the deadline for submission of income-tax returns by individuals," he said.
The NBR had celebrated income tax day on September 15 since 2008 as per administrative order of the board.
Each of the income-tax zones will observe income tax week in their respective domains with necessary arrangements for providing better services to the people, he said.
However, the deadline for submission of tax returns by the individual taxpayers will remain unchanged as November 30 this year as the income tax law bars extension of the timeframe this time around.
Until 2015-16, the NBR had been forced to extend the time for submission of income-tax return by individuals twice or thrice following requests from cross-sections of people.
In the Finance Bill 2016, the government incorporated a provision of financial disincentives, including penalty and additional tax, in case of payment of tax or submission of tax returns after the expiry of deadline.
Individual taxpayers have to pay punitive tax for submission of time petition to the deputy commissioners of taxes. There was no such penalty or disincentive for delayed filing of tax returns with prior approval from the NBR.
According to the income tax law, only deputy commissioner of taxes may extend the time for submission of tax returns, on case-to-case basis, following taxpayers' petition. He may also further extend the time by up to two months with the approval of the inspecting joint commissioner of taxes.
A huge number of individual taxpayers every year either wait until the last moment to submit their tax returns or seek time for filing returns, taking the advantage of the existing rules and practices. And that used to cause revenue losses for the NBR.
It has been alleged that many taxpayers find delaying tax payment and return submission beneficial as they can use the money to earn income, thus depriving the government of revenue receipt in time.
According to the NBR data, more than one-third of the individual taxpayers submit time petition for submission of income-tax returns late every year though the revenue board extends the deadline several times.
Officials said such large number of time petitions causes additional hassle for taxmen to handle the returns though the task is supposed to end by September.
They said penalty for time petition will discourage taxpayers seeking additional time beyond the deadline.  
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