The Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) anticipates a significant surge in the number of tax return filers, surpassing the current 4.2 million figure. This surge is expected following the introduction of a simplified return form designed specifically for salaried individuals and pensioners, employing a “green channel mode.”
During a press conference held at the FTO Secretariat, FTO Advisor Legal Almas Jovindah affirmed the FTO’s commitment to ensuring the notification of the new return form within 30 days. He emphasized that the FTO is actively working with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to facilitate salaried individuals and pensioners in this regard.
Presently, when a salaried individual initiates the return process through the IRIS online system, they encounter 34 different columns/tabs, with only 4 being relevant to their status. Consequently, 30 tabs/columns are extraneous for salaried individuals and pensioners.
Filing a return necessitates navigating through all fields, including irrelevant ones, causing unnecessary complexity. Moreover, the purported simplified form, introduced through a software wizard, remains challenging for ordinary individuals unfamiliar with tax terminology and lacking computer literacy. Jovindah pointed out that out of 66 tabs/columns in the “Wizard,” only 10 pertain to salaried individuals and pensioners.
In response to this issue, the FTO has directed the Member (Policy) and Member (Information & Technology) to create a new return form and establish a dedicated window within the existing IRIS system for salaried taxpayers. Additionally, the FTO has instructed Member PR to launch an extensive awareness campaign through media and SMS to inform and educate the salaried and pensioner communities about this streamlined return filing process.
To offer a more straightforward version of tax returns, it is deemed appropriate to devise a separate tax return tailored for salaried individuals, containing only essential fields pertinent to their income source.
Muhammad Naseer Butt, FTO Senior Advisor (Income Tax), conveyed that the existing return form poses irrelevant questions to salaried individuals and pensioners, such as their residential status. He proposed the establishment of a distinct IRIS window dedicated to the salaried class, with a focus on pertinent inquiries.
FTO Advisor/Registrar, Majid Qureshi, anticipates a notable increase in the number of return filers with the introduction of the new return form.
This data has been shared with the FBR as part of an independent investigation conducted by the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO), focusing on technical gaps in process flow and systemic errors within the FBR’s registration processes.
In the course of this investigation, it became evident that the IRIS system, in many cases, failed to respond to taxpayers’ queries.
The FTO has directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to assemble a dedicated team of professionals to continually monitor the registration system’s traffic flow, minimizing the risk of systemic errors and bottlenecks.
In accordance with recommendations from the FTO’s office on the issue of Broadening of Tax Base (BTB), the FBR is advised to develop and implement a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) outlining ways to provide timely responses to taxpayers’ inquiries. Additionally, clear timelines should be set for each response to enhance clarity.
The FBR should also invest in the periodic upgrading of the online filing and registration systems, ensuring they offer state-of-the-art facilities to taxpayers, Qureshi concluded.
