Tax evasion : FBR to serve notices to 300 lawmakers
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has decided to serve notices to 300 parliamentarians, including federal ministers, for not filing income tax returns, as revealed in a first-of-its-kind report.
FBR Chairman Ali Arshad Hakeem said the FBR was already in the process of sending notices to over 188,000 people identified as tax evaders, which also included parliamentarians. He added that tax officials would treat the report, titled Representation without Taxation, as an additional source of information in this regard.
According to the Income Tax Ordinance 2001, anyone whose annual income is Rs500,000 or above is liable to file income tax returns, irrespective of the source of income.
Another official said that the FBR would ask the non-filers to deposit a penalty of Rs5,000 and file the tax returns within the stipulated time.
While commenting on the report, he said as far as the data of non-filers is concerned, there was no mismatch between the information given in the report and the FBR’s data but added that in many cases the information regarding tax paid by the parliamentarians was not accurate.
For instance, according to the report, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed paid Rs82 in income taxes but the FBR’s data was showing the amount over Rs500, he said.
The report affirms the deep-held belief that the political class is not only the biggest hurdle in broadening an extremely narrow tax base but also one that hates to pay taxes.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 13th, 2012.
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Look at the issue from another angle. Why has the confedential information about the Taxpayers or Non-taxpayers been released to the media?. PRAL should not be ignored and be held responsible for the same. There are some corrupt elements in PRAL who passed on the confedential information to the media
@Syed THe same logic applies to politicians as well.. They also get their salary with tax deducted at source.. The problem is not whether they pay or not, it is whether they file the returns, to declare whether they have any other source of income other than the salary.. If yes, they need to pay taxes... So, even chief justice may have any other source of income other than salary, so it is necessary to file taxes, regardless of their tax deducted at source...
I suggest you find out the facts before judging
What is the moral authority of those 300 lawmakers or parasites, if we can call them without ET's editing? What about other upstart leaders who have recently converted to piety?? Who will bring answers to http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-85755-For-a-'tax-clean'-Imran Why do we tend to forget everything??
Why not lawmakers pass a bill like EU where they bureaucrats don't pay tax.
Those officers who did not send the notices of not filling tax returns should be sent home with no retirement benefits. These 300 who did not file tax returns must be arrested and put in jail till they pay the taxes plus interest and penality.. They should be in in JAIL for 100 yrs or till they die which ever come first.
@ Jibran, Judges are not self employed, they get their wages after the tax deductions. Just like any other person with a job.
What has FBR doing?.Why were notices not issued earlier.?.Who is examining FBR database?.
Hope these guys like bar-b-q, coz these notices will just fuel a big bonfire and nothing else.
What a shame? They all are punch of crooks with no remorse for their action. Now they are caught with their hand in cookie jar all they are going to say is sorry.
I wish this report can be extended to last Five years as that will really expose these crooks. Also, ECP should made it mandatory for candidates to file last Five years of taxes. If someone has not been filing taxes then he/she should be disqualified.
This bit needs correction. The numbers are way too low.
"Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed" hahahha kitna bara intellectual banta hai yeh banda
Come on FBR. Your left hand doesn't know what your right hand is doing. You are an incompetent department whose data and Tax-payer ID's are wrong. The little there was, was undone by Shaukat Aziz's self-assessment scheme. He did that to shelter his own and Musharraf's income\wealth. In the process he destroyed the old CBR and ITO's tax and law enforcement capabilities. The British developed and built India by raising tax from Land Revenue. There was little industry in their times. Yet after 65 years of industrial development, FBR cannot raise the equivalent value in tax in terms of purchasing power-parity as the British did. Pretty damning indictment of Pakistan itself isn't it???
This is step in the right direction.The penality should be Rs 50,000 per day instead of just Rs 5000. For these filthy rich people, rs 5000 is peanut.please confidcate their properties and freeze their accounts because they have not filed their tax return. That is the way it is done in USA. We should learn good things from the West too.
@jibran..for godsake what is with you people..judges, bureaucrats and generals do not get elected..politicians do...if these judges are not filing taxes then whose job is to make them do so..it is time we stop blaming others...hamaray mulk mein yeh aik naya logic aya hai..kisi ki chori pakro to ghalati nahi manay ga balkay kahay ga..wo bhi to karta hai...A parliament does not have any physical authority..all it has is moral authority and it has to be earned.
TU IDHAR UDHAR KI BAAT NA KAR YEH BATA KEH KAAFILA KYUN LUTA MUJHE RAAHZANON SAY GILLA NAHI TERI RAAHBARI KA SAWAAL HAI
IK - We need you more than ever. These thugs have looted us to the fullest.
Have the honorable judges filed the taxes?