ISLAMABAD – Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has received startlingrevelations about the properties held in UK by more than 600 Pakistanis.
FBR has decided to dispatch tax notices to 600-700 individuals havingrental income from possessing expensive properties in the UK in a bid toproceed against potential tax evaders, The News has reported.
The UK tax authorities have shared full details of Pakistanis owningproperties and earning rental incomes with the FBR as they provided theiraddresses with telephone numbers. “We have worked out details and willstart sending out tax notices very soon. In this format of information, noone can hide himself or herself from the radar of FBR,” top FBR officialsconfided to The News here on Friday.
The FBR has obtained information from the UK Tax authorities with theassistance of Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)as exchange of information became operational and now the FBR was all setto move the long arm of law for penalising the tax evaders in a big way.
“The incoming PTI led government wants to increase tax collection from Rs4,000 bn to Rs 8,000 billion so the FBR is also making preparations to goahead with the policy of name and shame for tax evaders but it will alsodepend that how much the government provides autonomy to the tax collectionmachinery,” said the FBR officials.
All concerned Large Taxpayers Units (LTUs) and Regional Taxpayers Offices(RTOs) have been instructed to send tax notices to these 600 to 700individuals mainly belonging to Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and other partsof the country to ascertain whether they were return filers or not. If theywill be found non-filers, then the law of the land will move against them,said the sources.
The official said that the FBR developed centralised system to monitorprogress on these dispatched tax notices in a bid to remove the element ofharassment. “We will track down progress on these tax notices while sittingat our offices in Islamabad,” said the official sources.
“We have obtained information of hundreds of Pakistanis owning immoveableproperties in the UK,” said the official. Under confidentiality clauses,the FBR cannot disclose the exact number and details obtained from the UKTax authorities under the OECD mechanism. And, the sources said if theconfidentiality is breached, then the FBR would not be able to get anyfuture information so they have ensured foolproof arrangements to protectagainst any leaks.