The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has served a Rs. 13 million tax notice to a famous YouTube prankster, Nadir Ali. The Karachi-based prankster is accused of concealment of income.
Nadir, who owns a YouTube channel named ‘P for Pakao’ featuring short prank videos has more than 820 million views in total. He also has over 3 million subscribers on his channel.
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It was not clear as to when the investigation against him was started. However, the sources close to the matter said that the Intelligence and Investigation Department of FBR has concluded the investigations against him. The matter has now been referred to the Chief Commissioner Inland Revenue Tax Office (RTO)-III in Karachi for recovery of the tax evaded.
The tax officials said that Nadir was served multiple notices during the investigation, but he did not reply to any of them. As the case has been forwarded, he can now appeal before the Commissioner Appeals in the RTO office.
Nadir confirmed receiving the notice and said that he had responded in person through his lawyer and filed the appeal for an extension in the time to submit a reply, which was approved.
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Nadir registered his channel with the income tax department in October 2017. For the first two years, 2016 and 2017, he showed no income and for the next two years, he declared Rs. 0.89 million and Rs. 14.44 million respectively.
But, the revenue board believes that Nadir has not submitted his full record of income and has concealed a large part for tax reasons.
As per FBR sources, he earned Rs. 2.186 million in the year 2017, Rs. 28.335 million in 2018 and 46.762 million in 2019. The details have been verified with YouTube.
Moreover, he received Rs. 10 million in foreign exchange during the year he claimed exemption without providing the proof. At the same time, he maintained a bank account that was not declared in the wealth statement.
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This is the first case of its sort where FBR has gone after online content creators for not declaring online income for tax purposes.
Nadir’s case is a wakeup call for many YouTubers, Vloggers and online content producers who are generating a large income online that they should start filing returns before FBR takes an action.
It is noteworthy that incomes generated online are taxable and records need to be maintained for five years and declared in the annual return filings.
I condemn this celebrities should be given exemption from tax because they play a vital role in the image building of country.
Any other Pakistani earning more than 6 lakhs pays income tax. Then why should these so-called celebrities earning in crores be exempted from income tax. They should all pay taxes as per law.
I guess you are just pranking, like your favorite prankster.
ایڈسینس کی ارننگ کو ٹیکس سے استثنیٰ حاصل ہے
اگر یہ سلسلہ چلا تو یہ جو سالانہ آٹھ دس ارب ڈالرز آئی ٹی پروفیشنلز ملک میں لا رہے ہیں اسکی بری
طرح حوصلہ شکنی ہوگی ۔۔
حکومت کو اسکا نوٹس لینا چاہیے۔۔ ورنہ یہ اربوں ڈالر ملک میں لانے والے لوگوں کیساتھ بڑا ظلم ہوگا ۔۔
جس کو قانونی طور پر استثنیٰ حاصلُہے اس سے تو کوئی بھی ٹیکس نہیں لے سکتا مگر اس کے علاوہ ہر شخص کو اپنی آمدنی پر قانون کے مطابق ٹیکس دینا چاہئے۔ پاکستان کے موجودہ قانون کے مطابق کوئی بھی تنخواہ دار شخص جو پچاس ہزار روپۓ ماہوار سے زیادہ کماتا ہے وہ ٹیکس دیتا ہے۔ پھر یہ لاکھوں اور کڑوڑوں کمانے والے کس وجہ سے ٹیکس سے استثنیٰ کے حقدار ہیں؟
Only IT and IT enabled services are exempt from tax. Adsense is earning from products i.e. videos or websites etc.
Stop mixing chay Adsense earners with real IT professionals who provide IT and IT enabled services and bring forex for the country. Its quite an insult to call bloogers and content creators IT professionals. Please reconsider. Adsense is revenue from ads. Ads are not tax exempt in any situation. In fact there are provincial as well as federal taxes – just like the taxes paid by TV channels and newspapers etc.
If good earning citizens will not pay tax then who will. Everyone do hard work but this doesn’t mean that you get exemption. This mindset should be changed or country will not move forward.
This is good. Celebrities, content creators and everyone with an income a/c to the laws should be liable for tax.
Foreign remittance is taxable as per the law.
No, it isnt like that. For remittance upto 50 lac per year, there is no tax and FBR does not ask source of income. For remittance upto 1 crore per year, FBR can only ask for source of income. For higher amounts, source of income must be declared and tax must be paid.
Content creators are earning money locally. Just their funds are kept by foreign companies. So tax must be paid by content creators because their earnings originate mostly from Pakistani viewers. If Google makes a local office, then earnings of content creators shall be kept by Google Pakistan and no one shall be able to claim exemption citing remittance. This should help you understand the idea.
Can someone ask the Govt. what facility are you providing to such category people, if you want to take share of tax?
what it’s mean It business and their revenue have no tax upto 2025
The exemption is on export of IT and IT enabled services only. What are local content creators exporting? If P4Pakao earned 4 crore in a year, it means he paid almost 3 crore to google in commissions/fees etc. If he can pay such a huge amount to google, he should be able to pay a measly 1 crore for four years to FBR. Please stop being an apologist.
What about Freelance Graphic Designers who work online?
Do they come under the Tax Net or their products are considered IT export?
Will you please clarify that ?