The Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) has taken notice of the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) failure to obtain data on golden visas issued to Pakistani residents investing over AED 2 million in UAE property.
The FBR has neither secured real-time data access nor received periodic reports from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). The FTO has directed FBR’s Member Tax Policy and DG International Taxes to submit comments by July 29, 2025.
The law mandates FIA to share immigration and visa-related data with the FBR to track foreign assets and ensure legal foreign exchange transfers. The lapse has been termed maladministration after a citizen lodged a formal complaint to the FTO.
The failure has allowed undeclared foreign properties and illegal remittances to go undetected. It has also been recommended that tax returns be revised to include mandatory disclosure of foreign residency or passports acquired through investment.