Being a responsible Pakistani, if you haven’t filed your tax then you will have to face the penalties of being non-filer. According to PkRevenue , the date on which you pay your taxes has expired or you may not have the information for your return completion, or you may not have enough money to pay taxes and you may be afraid to file your return. In any case, the non-payment of taxes has serious consequences.
Those who do not file their tax will be caught sooner or later.
We have all heard many stories of income tax denials, whether they are straightforward tax dodgers or political demonstrators everyone has to face major civil penalties as well as criminal penalties of fines and imprisonment.
Beware, the thing you were not told is that failure in filing tax returns can be very costly.
According to Tax laws:
According to Income Ordinance, 2001, tax laws define both lenient and severe penalties for the individuals who have taxable income but not paying their tax or the individuals who are registered with tax authority but their annual returns are not filed or filed after the due date.
Specification of the number of Fines and penalties :
The Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 specifies the number of fines and penalties for non-compliance. Section 114 of the Ordinance deals with the persons who are required to file their annual income tax returns and Section 116 relates to wealth-related statements.
Penalties Under Section 114:
According to section 114 the person who fails to return the required income within the due date will have to face penalties of being non-filer which are the following :
| Penalties for late filing income tax | 0.1% of the tax payable in respect of the defaulted tax year on each day and a maximum of 50% of the tax payable Provided that the above-mentioned fine is less than Rs. 40,000 or no tax is paid in this tax year, then such a person will have to pay a fine of Rs. 40,000 Provided that if the income amount is 75% of the income amount coming from salary and the amount of income from salary is under Rs.50 lakhs, the penalty amount, in that case, will be at least Rs.5,000 |
| Penalties for failure to present the statement of wealth and Reconciliation of Wealth Statement | Such a person will have to pay a penalty of 0.1% per week of taxable income or Rs.100,000 whichever is excessive |
| Penalty for failure to submit foreign assets and income statement within the due date | An individual has to pay 2 % of the income of foreign income or assets each year |
| Penalty for the fake or misleading written, oral or electronic statement to Inland Revenue Authority or to an Income Tax Authority | Rs. 25,000 or 100% of tax amount whichever is higher an individual has to pay |
According to section 182 A:
According to section 182 A, FBR declares that the taxpayers who will not file their returns within the due date will not appear in the active taxpayer’s list for the year the returns have been paid that person will be included in active taxpayer list only in the condition if he pays he following surcharges:
| Categories of Taxpayers | Surcharges at Rupees |
| For Individual | 1000 |
| For Company | 20,000 |
| For an Association of a Persons | 10,000 |
Penalties Under Section 191:
Further penalties according to the income tax ordinance under Section 191 for the person who fails to submit a notice under subsection (3) and subsection (4) of section 114 of subsection (1) of section 116. Commit a crime or offense with a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year.
More Penalties of being non-filer:
Taxpayer’s failure for presenting a return of income or wealth statement without any excuse within the period prescribed by the court is considered as a crime and is punishable according to which a person is liable to a fine, not more than fifty thousand rupees or imprisonment not more than two years, or both.