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Thursday March 28, 2024

FBR issues penalty notices to 60 named in PanamaLeaks

By Mehtab Haider
December 07, 2016

Notices also sent to 109 who appeared in BahamasLeaks

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has sent out tax notices to 60 individuals whose names appeared in the PanamaLeaks for imposition of penalty out of the total 336 individuals owning offshore companies in known tax havens abroad.

“Yes, the FBR has issued penalty show cause letters to 60 individuals whose names appeared in the PanamaLeaks under Section 182 of the Income Tax Ordinance (ITO) 2001,” official sources confirmed to The News here on Tuesday. According to official documents on update with regards to the ongoing probe in the case of Panama and Bahamas leaks, exclusively available with The News, the FBR’s Directorate General IntelligenceRevenues (IR) sent out letters to 46 directors of these offshore companies for providing their services to them. So far, the FBR got information from 57 individuals appeared into PanamaLeaks. There are 23 non-resident Pakistanis while 39 have denied that they owned any offshore company abroad.

Of total 336 individuals of Panama, the FBR found that 11 were dead. There are 31 individuals into Panama who have sought adjournment against proceedings undertaken by the FBR. Only 14 admitted that they owned offshore companies and information provided into PanamaLeaks was correct. There are 10 individuals who have further contested the FBR’s information. About eight individuals have raised jurisdiction issues after receiving notices from the FBR. There are 37 individuals where FBR’s letter could not be served and the notices remained undelivered. 

In case of BahamasLeaks where 109 names appeared so the FBR sent out tax notices to them. Of total tax notices, 6 remained undelivered and 5 sought adjournment.

There are 11 individuals where the FBR got information and five denied that they owned any offshore companies into Bahamas. Two individuals raised jurisdiction issued and 11 were those who owned duplicate companies.

There are 69 individuals where the FBR have issued reminders. In order to ensure compliance of notices issued under Section 176 of ITO 2001 to individuals involved, FBR is taking necessary steps as provided in ITO 2001:

Where replies are not received to notices u/s 176, reminders have been issued. If response is still not received, penalty notices u/s 182 of ITO 2001 have been issued. In case of persistent non-response, provisions relating to prosecution will be invoked.

The FBR had found 132 non-filers or irregular filers among Panama and Bahamas leaks. Particulars of these individuals have been forwarded to FBR’s field formations offices across the country for enforcing immediate filing of their returns and wealth statements.