The number of active taxpayers has declined by 30 per cent or 935,000 to just under 2.2 million, according to the latest Active Taxpayers List (ATL) released by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The 2.2 million tax return filers were just one-third of those who have valid National Tax Numbers (NTNs) and are doing business in Pakistan but did not submit their tax returns, indicating the FBR’s failure to enforce laws.
For the tax year 2020, the names of 2.178 million individuals and companies have been included in the Active Taxpayers List (ATL) 2021, according to the list that the FBR released on Monday.
The ATL 2021 has replaced the ATL 2020 that carried names of 3.12 million individuals and companies. A comparison of both the lists showed that over 932,000 names were missing from the new list.
Earlier in December, Pakistan’s number of active taxpayers crossed three million for the first time in the country’s history.
Return filers for the tax year 2019 were at 3,000,453 on the basis of return filed up to December 20. Previously, the highest returns filing was recorded at 2.85 million for the tax year 2018 as per the taxpayers’ directory issued by the FBR in October 2020.
