ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has decided to take action against those who do not declare their hidden local as foreign assets after the expiry of the scheme August 1, 2018.
Official source said that tax amnesty scheme will expire on July 31 and it depends on the next government to give further extension to the scheme or not. He further said that FBR is not in favour of granting extension to the scheme, which had already extended.
“We will propose the new government to take action against non-taxpayers to broaden the tax base of the country,” he said. “The government had already given a golden opportunity to declare hidden local and foreign assets by paying nominal tax”.
He informed that FBR would take the help of National Database Regulatory Authority (Nadra) to trace the tax evaders and digging out the non-filers who hide their assets and income. The Nadra will be requested to provide details of non-taxpayers regarding banking transaction, booking of vehicles, private school fees, deal in immoveable and moveable properties and foreign tours, he added.
Similarly, he informed that they would also initiate action against those who hide their foreign assets . The FBR has recently obtained information about immovable properties owned by the Pakistanis in the United Kingdom with the assistance of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the UK tax authorities.
The FBR official said that the information was being analysed for taking further action. “The FBR has also details of Pakistanis who invested in real estate in United Arab Emirates (UAE). The list reportedly carries all the details of those people, including the addresses of properties, passport numbers of their owners, their names and even the ages of investors who had purchased properties there,” he said.
Pakistan would start receiving exchange of information about offshore accounts from OECD nations from September. Currently, there are 104 signatories of the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.
Reportedly, a total of 56 countries have shown their willingness and officially notified necessary requirement for automatic exchange of information with Pakistan.
