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different provincial and local taxation authorities as well as other regulatory authorities including different ministries despite the availability of registration facility at one place. However, it is an appreciative step taken by the federal tax authority and Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to start one window operation for companies where both the SECP registration and NTN facilities are available at the same time through online procedure instead of physical presence. Still there are other areas which includes, but not limited to sales tax registration with taxation authorities and registration of Association of Persons (AOP) business where registrar has to vet the trust with taxation authorities, registration of branch offices with Board of Investment (BOI) with tax registration, etc. which require consideration of authorities to provide axation is the integral online registration facilities for the purpose of ease of tool which not only drives doing business in Pakistan. business environment to Tcertain direction but also 2. Return filing requirements: After getting the NTN, marks impact on the comfort level return filing is the second requirement to convey of society as a whole. Nowadays, the information to taxation authorities but these taxation is the most important topic requirements create administrative difficulties for the in the context of Pakistan. Also, we taxpayers as well as are lengthy and time consuming. frequently hear about deduction of withholding taxes If we take the example of a normal company having on major financial transactions or steps including banking presence in two provinces of Pakistan, then every transaction, purchase of residential property, usage of year it is required to file 36 monthly sales tax returns mobile phone or even payment for registration of motor (two provincial and one federal), 13 income tax vehicle. Despite the burden of payment of various taxes withholding statements (12 monthly and one annual), at different stages even by a common individual with four quarterly advance tax filings and one annual salaried income, there are many other procedural issues return of income. These all becomes 54 filings with the which create trouble while doing business with applicable taxation authorities only, apart from filings under other taxation laws. regulation i.e. SECP. To highlight these issues faced by the common individual Due to the above difficulties of filing of various returns, and corporate sector at the time of commencement of tax payers are reluctant to come under the tax net and doing business, following are few glimpse of hindrances avoid complying with the taxation principles. If the which a common taxpayer faces: tax department shows lenient attitude and ignores the minor non-compliance in this respect, then it will 1. NTN Registration: The basic and first step is to boost the confidence of the taxpayer and increase their establish relationship with the taxation department willingness towards filing returns. and to include one-self into the taxation net through obtaining National Tax Number (NTN). At this stage, 3. Unnecessary show cause notices, orders and forged while the taxpayer is trying to get registration for the recovery proceedings: After the filing of return, purpose of taxation, he is required to submit various generally the tax department issues the show cause documents for example, original electricity bill in case notice which usually contains the requirement of of installation of sub-meter in the building or Bank unexpected explanation. For example, justification and Account Maintenance Certificate from bank before the evidence of personal expenses in wealth statement issuance of NTN. Further, there are some other issues (part of the annual return of income). Although, the like non-presence of the particular staff responsible for said demand is not fruitful for the purpose of audit NTN registration, hectic procedures for sales tax and proceedings conducted by the taxation authority, Association of Persons registration, registration with because they merely concerned with the non- October - December 2018 The Pakistan Accountant 29