Axon Consulting

29/11/2019

Cash gifts received without banking channel chargeable to tax...

Any cash gift received by a person other than banking channel will be treated as chargeable to tax, sources in Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) said on Thursday.

The sources said that in the past people were taking advantage of incentives granted on gifts and concealed their income to evade taxes.

However, the change in the law through last budget those people will no more dodge the tax authorities of claiming gift from their relatives and evade taxes.

The FBR had conducted an analysis of income tax returns filed in previous years, which showed that huge amount of non recurring receipts from un-related persons are transferred in the garb of gifts to avoid incidence of taxation.

The sources said that in order to discourage this practice of undisclosed receipts, Section 39 of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 had been amended through Finance Act, 2019.

The amendment enabled the tax authorities to include any amount or fair market value of any property received by a person without consideration or received as a gift in income under the head ‘income from other sources.’

However, gift received from grandparents, parents, spouse, brother, sister, son or a daughter shall not be included in such income.

The new income provision is subject to sub-section 3 of Section 39 which states that an amount received by a person otherwise than by a cross cheque drawn on a bank or through a banking channel from a person holding a National Tax Number (NTN) shall be treated as income chargeable to tax under the head ‘income from other sources’.

This means that the gift received by a person is chargeable to tax if gift is not received from grandparents, parents, spouse, brother, sister, son or a daughter of the recipient.

However, even if cash gift is received from the relations mentioned above but the same has not be received through cross cheque or banking channel, as the case may be, the amount of gift will still be added in income chargeable to tax under the head, income from other sources۔

25/11/2019

24/11/2019

In a major tax documentation drive, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has decided to go after approximately 17,000 big retailers located in luxurious shopping malls, retail chains and stores having 1,000 square feet size across the country to raise due taxes.

The drive for installation of automated ‘Point of Sale’ (POS) system at these outlets will be initiated after Dec 1 as part of government’s commitment to document sales of big retailers who are currently evading payment of taxes, which runs into billions.

23/11/2019

https://www.google.com.pk/amp/s/www.thenews.com.pk/amp/571965-fbr-decides-to-replace-gst-with-vat

FBR to replace GST with VAT: The Federal Board of Revenue has decided in principle to move towards replacing the existing General Sales Tax (GST) with Value Added Tax (VAT).

23/11/2019

**FBR to start implementation of reforms package from July 2020**

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has envisaged its internal deadline for preparation of blueprint of proposed reform package till January 2020 with the expectation that the government will start implementation on it from July 1, 2020.

The objective of the reform package is to bring drastic changes into structure of the FBR. The government has placed a steering committee to devise roadmap for the FBR’s reform package and the FBR Chairman Shabbar Zaidi also devised a mechanism to hold consultation with major stakeholders to come up with a strategy having ownership of FBR’s all wings.

“Yes, the FBR chairman established four sub-committees to devise blueprint of proposed reform package for the tax collection machinery and we will present our report to PM by January 2020,” the FBR Member Inland Revenue Policy and official spokesman Dr Hamid Ateeq Sarwar told The News.

Official sources said that the reform plan of the FBR was dire need of the time but it caused confusion because it came into full swing from three different directions. The WB-funded programme envisages reform plan as the government committed certain reforms with timelines to get $400 million loan. Under the IMF agreement of Extended Fund Facility, Pakistan made commitment to undertake reforms on the front of tax collection machinery. An IMF technical mission also visited Islamabad to suggest prescriptions for undertaking reforms into the FBR.

Thirdly, the PM Office sent out directives for asking the FBR to undertake reforms. Now there is need to devise cohesion and establish synergies for undertaking much needed reforms into the FBR.

The established four sub-committees, the sources said, were currently deliberating upon options whether the reform process should kick-start from top or it should be launched from the bottom to get the desired results. The government will have to take decision whether it is going to hire required professionals on contract basis or permanent staff will be hired. All those whose services will not be required whether they will be put into surplus pool or they will be offered any voluntary separation scheme (VSS). The multilateral creditors have suggested to the government to establish Pakistan Revenue Authority (PRA) with the mandate to collect taxes of both the federal and provincial governments under one umbrella. The PTI-led regime had taken decision to defer implementation on PRA till consensus is evolved with all stakeholders.

The official said the FBR high-ups would submit their reform package to the government in January 2020 then the government would have ample time to deliberate on all options over next six months so the implementation on reform package would come into force from next budget with effect from July 1, 2020-21.

The FBR requires couple of months to do spadework on proposed reform package as in December there would be major focus on revenue collection. Then in January there will be time to present roadmap by end of January 2020. The IMF’s next review mission would start deliberation from Feb 2020 so the government would have time to hold consultations before approving the ambitious reform package that would be implemented from the next budget.

*22 Nov, 2019_Geo.tv***FBR to start implementation of reforms package from July 2020**

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has envisaged its internal deadline for preparation of blueprint of proposed reform package till January 2020 with the expectation that the government will start implementation on it from July 1, 2020.

The objective of the reform package is to bring drastic changes into structure of the FBR. The government has placed a steering committee to devise roadmap for the FBR’s reform package and the FBR Chairman Shabbar Zaidi also devised a mechanism to hold consultation with major stakeholders to come up with a strategy having ownership of FBR’s all wings.

“Yes, the FBR chairman established four sub-committees to devise blueprint of proposed reform package for the tax collection machinery and we will present our report to PM by January 2020,” the FBR Member Inland Revenue Policy and official spokesman Dr Hamid Ateeq Sarwar told The News.

Official sources said that the reform plan of the FBR was dire need of the time but it caused confusion because it came into full swing from three different directions. The WB-funded programme envisages reform plan as the government committed certain reforms with timelines to get $400 million loan. Under the IMF agreement of Extended Fund Facility, Pakistan made commitment to undertake reforms on the front of tax collection machinery. An IMF technical mission also visited Islamabad to suggest prescriptions for undertaking reforms into the FBR.

Thirdly, the PM Office sent out directives for asking the FBR to undertake reforms. Now there is need to devise cohesion and establish synergies for undertaking much needed reforms into the FBR.

The established four sub-committees, the sources said, were currently deliberating upon options whether the reform process should kick-start from top or it should be launched from the bottom to get the desired results. The government will have to take decision whether it is going to hire required professionals on contract basis or permanent staff will be hired. All those whose services will not be required whether they will be put into surplus pool or they will be offered any voluntary separation scheme (VSS). The multilateral creditors have suggested to the government to establish Pakistan Revenue Authority (PRA) with the mandate to collect taxes of both the federal and provincial governments under one umbrella. The PTI-led regime had taken decision to defer implementation on PRA till consensus is evolved with all stakeholders.

The official said the FBR high-ups would submit their reform package to the government in January 2020 then the government would have ample time to deliberate on all options over next six months so the implementation on reform package would come into force from next budget with effect from July 1, 2020-21.

The FBR requires couple of months to do spadework on proposed reform package as in December there would be major focus on revenue collection. Then in January there will be time to present roadmap by end of January 2020. The IMF’s next review mission would start deliberation from Feb 2020 so the government would have time to hold consultations before approving the ambitious reform package that would be implemented from the next budget.

*22 Nov, 2019_Geo.tv*

20/11/2019

سمگلنگ کی روک تھام کے لئے پاکستان کسٹمز نے تمام ائیر پورٹس پر مسافروں کی شناخت کے لئے رسک مینجمنٹ نظام شروع کیا ہے۔ یہ قدم وزیراعظم پاکستان کی ہدایات کے مطابق لیا گیا ہے تا کہ کسٹمز بارڈر مینجمنٹ کو مربوط بنایا جائے۔مسافروں کی شناخت کا یہ نظام ملک کے سات بڑے ائیر پورٹس پر شروع کیا گیا ہے جس کے لئے کسٹمز سٹاف کو بہترین ٹریننگ دی گئی ہے۔ اس شناختی نظام کو امریکی کسٹمز کے ادارہ اور ورلڈ کسٹمز آرگنائیزیشن کے تکنیکی تعاون سے متعارف کیا گیا ہے۔
اس نظام کے تحت مسافروں کی پیشگی شناخت ممکن ہو گی اور فیٹف ایکشن پلان کے لائحہ عمل کو مد نظر رکھتے ہوئے بنایا گیا ہے۔ اس کی بدولت مسافروں، ڈرگ سمگلرز اور منی لانڈررزکو پکڑا جا سکے گا۔اس نئے نظام کے تحت پاکستان آنے اور باہر جانے والے مسافروں کا شناختی پروفائل بھی تیا ر ہو جائے گا جس سے شناخت میں آسانی میسر آئے گی۔
چئیر مین ایف بی آر سید شبر زیدی نے نئے نظام کے متعارف ہونے پر کہا کہ اس نظام سے کسٹمز اہلکاروں کی ائیرپورٹس پر موجودگی کم ہو جائے گی اور مسافروں کی ائیر پورٹس پر شناخت کا عمل کم وقت میں ممکن ہو پائے گا۔ چئیر مین نے ممبر کسٹمز آپریشنز کو مزید ہدایات جاری کرتے ہوئے کہا ہے کہ تمام بارڈر ایجنسیز سے معلومات کے تبادلہ سے قبل کسٹمز اہلکاروں کے لئے مناسب ٹریننگ سیشنز کا انعقاد کیا جائے۔