ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Wednesday approved the Audit Policy, 2019 pertaining to the year 2018.
The Audit Policy, 2019 will apply to people or classes of people falling under all or any of the three domestic Federal Tax Statutes which include the Income Tax Ordinance 2001, Sales Tax Act 1990, and Federal Excise Act 2005.
The FBR said that the criteria for selection of cases for the tax year 2018 would be done through a scientific approach for which a software named “Risk Based Audit Management System” (RAMS) has been designed and put in place.
The FBR said that this will enable it to focus on cases with the maximum number of non-compliant taxpayers while facilitating compliant taxpayers and building confidence in the audit system.
According to the FBR, the tax board will shortly conduct a computer ballot by applying risk based parameters for the selection of 0.76 per cent cases for audit out of the total filers. For sales tax and federal excise duty, the FBR would select 1.67 per cent and 5.65 per cent cases respectively for audit out of the total filers after exclusions for tax periods corresponding to accounting period adopted for the purpose of returns of Income Tax for the year 2018.
In order to facilitate the taxpayers, FBR has approved certain categories of the taxpayers to be excluded from selection which include those already under investigations by FBR Intelligence and Investigations Wing and all cases where income chargeable to tax under the head salary and pension exceeds 50 per cent of taxable income, except for cases having business income. Directors of companies do not qualify for such an exclusion.
The FBR said that the parameters defined for selection of cases for audit are confidential and shall not be disclosed.
