Filing tax returns is an ethical, legal and social responsibility. However, it is so cumbersome and complicated in Pakistan that the majority stays away from it, or hire tax consultant services who charge from Rs5, 000 to Rs20,000 per single tax year.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had introduced an online tax filing system on its website to encourage and promote self-filing practice, but the system failed to gather much appreciation. This time, the tax collector agency has introduced a mobile application, FBR Tax Asaan, to increase user convenience. Although, the application offers some technical glitches and lack of information, FBR claims that it has been widely welcomed by the salaried class.
In this article, we will go through a step by step procedure to file income tax returns of a salaried individual via the FBR Tax Asaan application. The application can be downloaded for free from Android and iOS application stores.
So let’s start!
Step 1: When you open the application, you will land on the given home page. The application offers four different services: income tax returns, sales tax registration, e-payment, and verification. Before you click on your desired service (in this case, Income Tax Return), you need to sign in first.
To sign in, click on the hamburger button at the top left corner of the screen.
Step 2: Clicking on hamburger button brings you here. Click on the sign in button.
Step 3: Type in your username and password. Since, the application currently serves only those who are already on FBR’s active taxpayers list, you must have these credentials.
Step 4: When you’re signed in, you’re asked to file returns for the respective tax year. In the given example, the applicant has already filed tax returns for the previous years. Click on the respective year.
Step 5: After choosing the year, you’re asked to select whether you’re resident or nonresident. In this case, we’re filing tax returns for a resident salaried person.
Step 6: Here, you can see different options that show your sources of income. Choose your relevant source(s) of income for which income tax has been deducted. In this case, we select Annual Salary and click Continue. Other options include annual deduction on salary, commercial plot, monetization, etc.
Step 7: Now, when you’ve chosen your source of income, i.e. Annual Salary, enter your total annual salary details. Click on Save and Back.
Step 8: If you have any other source of income, choose from the given options, and press Continue.
Step 9: If you have any claimable tax credit, choose its source from the given options. Tax credit entitles you to subtract the same amount from the payable income tax while filing your returns. Therefore, choose all the options very carefully.
Step 10: Click on the option(s) where your taxes were deducted the entire year. These are payable, as well as claimable taxes. Even if it’s a bank transaction or a vehicle token tax, you need to mention everything. After selection, press Continue.
Step 11: Enter you wealth statement. It is basically your income, your assets and your expenses.
Inflows: It includes your income that you have already declared, and other incomings that could be in the form of gifts, loans, etc.
Assets: This is the total value of all the assets you have, which include movable and immovable property.
Outflows: It indicates all the expenses that you did the entire year.
Step 12: After submitting your wealth statement, you’re given a declaration that you need to read, verify your credentials, and submit. Congratulations, you’ve done it all!
Step 13: You can check out the summary of your income, chargeable tax rate, refundable tax, wealth summary, etc.
In the meantime, when we’re discussing filing tax returns, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has extended the tax filing deadline for the year 2018-19 up to 31 October. Reportedly, only 265,000 tax returns were filed till the deadline against the total number of more than 2.5 million tax filers.
Although, FBR managed to broaden the tax filers net by taking it to 2.5 million from just 1.3 million, it however fell short of reaching the actual target of 3.5 million tax filers. Experts believe that with increased user convenience, trust recovery and initiation of new tools and regulations, the numbers could grow dramatically. Tax Asaan Application is a step towards this direction.
The Application does facilitate users, it comes with various technical and procedural issues, which need to be addressed. The tax bar associations, independent tax consultants and some of the general users have expressed dissatisfaction with the application. They opined that it is critical to remove all the glitches in the application before it reaches larger audiences.
Nevertheless, we believe that the new application is worth giving a try!
Do let us know about your experience.
