FBR lists AJK taxpayers to verification portal

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has included taxpayers belonging to Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) in the active taxpayer list (ATL) after the parliament approved amendments in the tax laws. After approval of the amendments made in Clause 23A of Section 2 of Income Tax Ordinance 2001, through Finance Act, 2018, taxpayers of the Council Board of Revenue, Azad Jammu and Kashmir have been included in the FBR’s ATL. Through online verification portal of the FBR, AJK taxpayers would be able to check their name in the ATL by visiting the FBR online verification portal. The move has added few thousand more taxpayers in the list.

The persons conducting various businesses/transactions within the territory of Pakistan are filing their returns in the territories of AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan, and are subjected to higher withholding tax rates applicable to non-filers as their names do not appear in the ATL being maintained by the FBR. To mitigate the hardship of such persons, it has been decided that the persons appearing on the ATL maintained by the Inland Revenue Department in AJK and the Gilgit-Baltistan Council Board of Revenue would be treated as filers under the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, officials said.

Under Finance Act 2018, in clause (23A), after the word Board , the expression or Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council Board of Revenue or Gilgit-Baltistan Council Board of Revenue has been inserted in the Finance Act 2018.