The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will soon disclose additional information about the tax payments made by Pakistan’s elected representatives through the issuance of the new tax directory.
Sources exclusively told Propakistani here on Thursday that the tax directory of Pakistan’s elected representatives has disclosed names of Senators, Members of the Parliament, and Members of the Provincial Assemblies and the total tax paid by them. However, the tax directory does not disclose any information about the type of tax payments made by the Parliamentarians.
Presently, the tax directory discloses constituency, name/CNIC of the Parliamentarian, tax paid, and total tax paid by AOPs in which the Parliamentarian is a Member. The share of the Parliamentarian in the association of person (AOP) has not been disclosed in the tax directory.
The new tax directory of Parliamentarians to be released by the FBR will disclose the nature of tax payment whether from salary income, business income, presumptive income, or agriculture income. The Parliamentarian’s actual share in the AOP would also be disclosed as a separate column in the tax directory. The readers would be able to know about the share of any Parliamentarian in the AOP. The new tax directory of the Parliamentarians would be more comprehensive with more details about the Parliamentarians.
Presently, the tax directory says: “Certain Parliamentarians, whose names are marked by *, have share income as Members of Associations of Persons. Since Association of Persons pays tax as a separate entity, such share is not taxable in the hands of the Members”. However, the share of the Parliamentarian in the AOP would now be disclosed as a separate column.
It is pertinent to mention that the Federal Board of Revenue published the first Tax Directory of Parliamentarians in the tax year 2013. In continuation of this initiative, the Tax Directory of the Parliamentarians for the tax year 2019 would be published and would be available on the FBR website for quick access. The directory contains tax details of Members of the Senate of Pakistan and Members of the National as well as Provincial Assemblies.
Sources added that the Tax Directory requires approval of the federal cabinet before its publication and release to the general public.
Sources added that the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 and income tax rules do not specify any deadline for the launch of the Tax Directory. It is the discretion of the government to issue the tax directory whenever it deems appropriate however the FBR is trying its level best to release the tax directory for the tax year 2019 by January 2022.
