The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has officially started taking action against Pakistanis hiding assets in the UK – a task which has had a very low success rate because the authorities lack ‘actionable information’.
The process can only be made easier if the actions are initiated on the basis of information received from the United Kingdom.
FBR chairperson Rukhsana Yasmeen said that FBR has started taking action against those who owned immovable properties in the UK. The statement released by FBR did not specify the number of people that the FBR was taking action against but a senior official from FBR stated that notices were served to 500 Pakistanis who owned properties in Britain.
“We have received information of those Pakistanis who illegally own property in the United Kingdom,” said FBR chairperson Rukhsana Yasmin on Monday. “The data was received from UK Tax Authorities,” she added.
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The FBR had obtained information about immovable properties owned by the Pakistanis in the United Kingdom with the assistance of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the UK tax authorities. Another FBR official informed that no one can hide their assets abroad after September 2018 as Pakistan will be able to exchange information about offshore assets from OECD nations after that date.
“The FBR has given an opportunity to these people to whiten their black assets by paying nominal tax under the tax amnesty scheme,” the official further added. Furthermore, FBR has already announced to initiate action against those individuals who do not declare their hidden properties as ‘foreign assets’ by August 01, 2018, after the expiry of the tax amnesty scheme.
The FBR has served notices to these people under section 176 and 114 of the Income Tax Ordinance, said the FBR spokesperson Dr. Mohammad Iqbal. He further said that the UK authorities have only shared information about those individuals who are not UK residents. Section 176 allows the FBR to seek information relevant to any tax chargeable under the Income Tax Ordinance.
The Task Ahead
The challenge for FBR is not only to broaden the extremely narrow tax base and to enhance revenues but to also identify new taxpayers who are living luxurious lifestyles but are not contributing to the government by paying their due taxes.
Looted???
LOL, since when does failing to declare assets abroad or within Pakistan for that matter to FBR equals LOOTING?!
If it is LOOTING then only 7-8 lac people in Pakistan are not looters, for being filers, everyone else is a LOOTER.