ISLAMABAD: Pakistani nationals residing in the UAE bagged the number 1 spot in terms of whitening their real estate assets under the foreign tax amnesty scheme, followed by UK, Switzerland, USA, Canada, Singapore and others.
Overall 5363 declarants availed the foreign tax amnesty scheme and 77846 used the domestic amnesty to whiten their assets, reported The News.
According to Chairperson Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Rukhsana Yasmeen there were total declarations of 82,848 people of which 5353 were availed under foreign tax amnesty and 77,845 availed domestic amnesty.
Consequently, over Rs2.5 trillion were whitened under the guise of the tax amnesty scheme. The FBR Chairperson said the country had fetched $366 million in cash proceeds on account of offshore tax amnesty scheme.
She shared the FBR would be forwarding tax notices to a few thousand declarants who failed to pay the due amount and would now require paying full 35 percent tax on their assets.
Ms Yasmeen called the tax amnesty scheme successful and the FBR fetched Rs121 billion which comprised of Rs44 billion via foreign amnesty and Rs77 billion through domestic amnesty.
Sources in the FBR disclosed they fetched Rss97 billion in shape of taxes and Rs24 billion in July under the tax amnesty scheme,
The official said the figure of Rs121 billion could increase by a few billion more and reach Rs126-127 billion.
Following the elections on July 25th, declarations under the tax amnesty scheme remained muted since the tax regulator received Rs6 billion taxes in a single day on whitening of assets.
Also, the FBR faced practical hurdles since it was concentrating on achieving its tax collection target before June 30th and a lack of ownership within the FBR didn’t help matters.
Lastly, the tax regulator officials said the central bank and others considered it routine work and FBR got many complaints from overseas Pakistani’s that banks weren’t cooperating with people who wanted to avail this scheme.
On querying why the domestic amnesty attracted a better response, it was shared FBR sent thousands of tax notices on basis of information received via third-party.
Consequently, potential non-filers were fully aware that the FBR would take severe action after the tax amnesty scheme lapsed.
And another FBR official said foreign amnesty failed to attract an encouraging response due to several reasons and it was availed mostly by people who possessed 100 percent documented assets overseas and didn’t have problems declaring them in Pakistan by paying attractive tax rates.
