FBR gets information of property transactions

FBR gets information of property transactions

KARACHI: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has received information of buyers and sellers of immovable properties during the period July – December 2019, sources said.

The sources in tax offices told PkRevenue.com that bulk of information was provided by provincial property registrar offices and housing societies along with complete details of buyers and purchasers.

The sources said that the information would be used for detecting concealment of tax money and quantum of black money used in transactions.

The sources said that there was huge gap between values of property declared at the time of registration or transfer with fair market values.

They said that the property registrar offices and housing societies on behalf of the FBR collect withholding tax and deposit the same into the national kitty. Besides, working as withholding agents they also require to provide information of buyers and sellers under Section 165 of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.

The withholding agents under Section 165 are require to obtain information of persons making transactions such as: name, Computerized National Identity Card Number (CNIC), National Tax Number (NTN), and address of each person from whom tax was collected or to whom payments were made from which tax was deducted.

As per law the withholding agents are required to provide details of all transactions and persons involved to the FBR by January 31, 2020 for the period July – December 2019.

The sources said that the withholding agents require to collect withholding tax from seller under Section 236C and from buyers under Section 236K of the Ordinance.

They said that in scrutiny process on the basis of information the tax offices would ask banks to provide payments details of buyers and sellers to identify the actual amount paid for transactions.

The sources said that the tax authorities had been empowered to take action where fair market value was not declared in purchase of immovable properties.

The real estate business is believed to parking lot for black money in Pakistan. Over the last few years the FBR made significant progress to encourage clean transactions in buying and selling of immovable properties.