Daily Times

Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has started nabbing tax evaders, and a campaign has been initiated against persons running multiple educational campuses but under-declaring their revenues.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the Broadening of Tax Base (BTB) Zone, the Regional Tax Officer (RTO-II) Karachi conducted surveys of schools / educational institutions in order to verify their registration with the income tax department and they served notices to 6,324 private schools and tuition centres in Karachi over failing to pay their due taxes despite having “booming business”.

The special teams of the tax office visited various localities of the city to verify the tax status of the schools, pre-schools/Montessori, colleges and educational / tuition centers. The survey also collected details of fee structures of schools to match the data with the details to be obtained from provincial education department. The official said physical surveys found enrollment/presence of over 700-800 pupils in certain campuses, but the owners of these campuses had mentioned a much lower number of pupils in the books.

It transpired during a survey that quite a large number of private schools, A-Level, O-Level tuition centres, pre-nursery training schools and other academies are having a booming business in the city. Nevertheless, most of these private schools and tuition centres were not registered with FBR and paying their due taxes, according to a circular, a copy of letter which is reported by correspondent. “These tuition centres, academies and schools are not filing their income tax return and statement under section of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 and are not deducting tax under section 149 of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 on salaries being given to the teachers and staff and also not deducting tax on supplies under section 153 of the Income Tax Ordinance 200 and they are acquiring a vast loss to the national exchequer.”