Move to bring professionals into tax net

With a four-year delay, the Federal Board of Revenue has set a July 1 deadline to implement the decision to connect professional services online with tax machinery across the country. The first draft rules for the plan were published on Dec 22, 2023. These proposed rules were later changed by another notification SRO428 of 2024, which established a precise time frame for implementing the decision from July 1. An official source told Dawn that during the tenure of the caretaker government, the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) took very serious notice of the non-implementation of the scheme in urban cities to raise income tax from professional service providers who earn money mostly in cash and do not pay any tax on it. In August 2020, the then-tax officials announced in SRO779 that 12 categories of sales and service providers should interface with FBR to track their sales and services. Under this decision, electronic devices and software will be installed on the premises of these services. Later, the list was expanded to include two more service providers — foreign exchange dealers/exchange businesses and private educational institutions.