What is a filer?
A “filer” is a person whose name is on the Tax List or whose name is on the tax records if that person does not pay a specific tax due to the fact that he / she does not have property or value but is still on the tax list then he / she is a filer.
Any person present on the list as “Paying Effective Tax” issued by the Federal Board of Revenue shall be deemed a file provider; with the person holding the “payer card”.
This definition is added for the purpose of controlling and differentiating between the two categories specified so that withholding tax is done at different rates. As previously discussed taxpayers’ tax rates may be the same but for the so-called, “Non-filers” they may be at an upgraded level. Articles 23A & 35C are inserted in this regard.
List of Active Taxpayers
The List of Active Payers was updated on the 15th of every month. Moreover, if the taxpayers are facing problems, then the Taxpayer List updates weekly. The list gets updated every sunday and uploaded on Monday.
This weekly list is downloaded by Government departments and agents to treat filers and non-filers as per list.
The Concept of Filer and Non-Filer Taxpayer in Pakistan
- According to the Section 2(23A) of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001, the person wants to become a filer should be appearing on Active Taxpayer List. It is clear that if a person is appearing on ATL list, he will be considered as a ‘Filer‘ while the person not appearing on ATL list will be considered as ‘Non-filer’.