Islamabad: On Tuesday, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) sent notifications to over 2,785 wealthy individuals accused of laundering Rs102b in last financial year 2016-17 which had been declared as “gift money.”
Current laws allow gifts to be exempted from taxes and it has been ascertained that a high number of rich individuals are taking advantage of this scheme and using it as a way of shifting their assets, income and wealth without paying anything to the national exchequer.
Earlier in June, it had been reported FBR’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) cell had started probing into money laundering worth Rs102b by a group of rich individuals in the country. This scheme was uncovered which revealed that these wealthy individuals were transferring their money by proclaiming it as gifts given by their husbands, siblings and parents. The people being given such gifts weren’t in the tax net or didn’t have any source of income, investigations had revealed.
Then an official from the FBR had said around 2,785 people were considered to have been involved in money laundering and using this loophole in tax laws to evade the authorities. Discrepancy was also reported between the tax returns filed by such individuals, with the taxes paid being meagre in comparison to the income declared to the authorities.
This is a cognizable offence if money gets laundered through gift-back arrangements with imprisonment of up to 10 years alongside heavy penalties need to be paid.
