Around 40,000 sales tax-registered companies are paying sales tax out of 200,000 companies registered with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
FBR data revealed that the sales tax base includes between 40,000 to 60,000 companies that are paying sales tax, including those depositing very low amounts. The total sales tax registration of companies with the FBR stands at nearly 200,000, including those filing nil sales tax returns.
Income tax data disclosed that nearly 5,000 large companies are compliant taxpayers within the corporate sector, paying 90 percent of the total corporate income tax collected by the FBR annually.
These 5,000 companies are actively doing business in the country in terms of tax compliance. The total number of companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) is nearly 125,000. Out of these registered companies, 50,000 are filing their income tax returns.
Within the category of 50,000 return filers, half of the companies (25,000) are filing nil returns with zero tax payments.
Out of the 25,000 active companies, 5,000 large companies are doing business and paying 90 percent of the corporate income tax. A total of around 300 companies are registered within five leading sectors.
