FBR can check five years record to identify tax evaders

ISLAMABAD: In the aftermath of the PanamaLeaks on offshore companies owned by 200 politicians and business tycoons, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) possesses the powers to scrutinise the filed returns of top guns for the last five years to identify those who had concealed their income and assets to allegedly evade billions of rupees due taxes.

It is yet to be seen whether the FBR will decide to proceed against influential  or it will be put again under the carpet to hide their mess.

“Under Section 122 of the Income Tax Ordinance, the FBR is empowered to open the filed returns of last five years in order to cross match whether income or assets piled up through offshore companies were declared or not,” official sources told The News here Monday.

In case of non-declaration of income and assets piled up abroad by resident Pakistanis, the FBR can proceed against alleged tax evaders. But all those who are non-residents in the country for more than 180 days, the FBR cannot proceed against them.

When contacted, the FBR’s spokesman said the tax authorities would definitely proceed against tax evaders if they found solid proof of any such allegations. The sources said the FBR will make efforts to get relevant documents for making efforts to proceed in the desired direction as they intend to cross match the information with their filed returns and in case of concealment of income or assets the tax authorities could issue notices to them.

However, under the existing anti money laundering amended law, the income tax fraud is out of predicate offence. With the latest amendments approved by the Parliament, the anti-money laundering laws could proceed in some other frauds of taxes but the Senate strongly opposed to insert income tax frauds as predicate offence after which the government had to drop such amendments.