Filing Your Monthly Sales Tax Return

The government of Pakistan has been making efforts to improve its tax collection capabilities in the last few years. The proper collection and usage of tax is crucial in the long-term development of a country. While tax collection systems are being worked on, there is still a lack of awareness regarding the tax collection process. Today, we are going to take a look at filing tax returns in Pakistan. We are going to take a look at how can you as a citizen of Pakistan, file your tax return on a monthly basis.

However, before we get into the tax return filing process, let’s talk a bit about sales tax return.

What is Sales Tax Return?

Everyone knows that the government taxes every individual based on their income, assets, and capital gains. There are various tiers set by the government known as tax brackets. Your level of income and the number of assets you own determine which bracket will you fall into.

Now, every citizen is legally obliged to pay the percentage of tax that their tax bracket allots to them. Failing to do so is illegal and can land you in trouble with the authorities. The tax that you pay on your purchases is called Input Tax and the tax that you collect from customers while selling goods or services is called Output Tax. The differences between Input and Output tax is called tax liability or tax refund. If your Input Tax is more than Output tax, then you are in a tax receivable position whereas if your Output tax is more than Input tax, then you are in tax payable position towards the Government.

Filing Your Sales Tax Return

Knowing how to file your sales tax return is unavoidable these days and thankfully digitization has made this process fairly easy. Here’s how you can do it yourself:

1. Head over to the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) official website. On the website’s homepage, you will find several options related to taxation. Find the option for “File Sales Tax Return” and click on it.
2. This will take you to a page with everything that you need to know about Sales Tax Returns. From here, find the option for “Electronic Filing of Sales Tax Return” and click on it.
3. You will now be led to an option for “Electronic Filing”. Selecting this option will take you the FBR’s e-file login page. Over here, you must enter your credentials in order to login to your account.
4. From here onwards, everything is very easy. FBR’s e-file portal has a user-friendly interface that will take you through the entire filing process. Once you have submitted your return, the FBR will begin processing your request and update your tax records.