FBR Cancels Registrations of Compliant Businesses Without Notice

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has abruptly canceled the registrations of compliant businesses without providing any notice to the affected taxpayers. Several businesses that had maintained their Active Taxpayer List (ATL) status and filed returns for the past six tax periods are now unable to file sales tax returns or calculate their tax liabilities.

This has resulted in delays in tax payments and has caused issues in participating in tenders, receiving payments from clients, and incurring penalties for delayed payments.

Taxpayers and tax consultants argue that the suspensions are directly linked to the requirement of integrating invoicing systems with the FBR for digital invoicing. However, they assert that if the suspensions are based solely on non-integration, the registrations should not have been suspended without following the proper legal process and serving formal notices to the taxpayers.

The businesses claim their status remains inactive even though they are facing difficulties in conducting their operations. They have urged the Finance Minister and FBR Chairman to intervene and restore the suspended registrations immediately, provided the suspensions are solely due to system integration and no formal notice has been served to the taxpayer.

Taxpayers warn that these suspensions are increasing the cost of doing business and making it challenging to restore their active status.