Through Finance Act, 2022 deemed income on immovable property has been imposed from tax year 2022 (July 01, 2021 – June 30, 2022) and declaration has been made mandatory of the deemed income along with annual return by November 30, 2022.
Although many taxpayers approached the higher courts challenging the imposition of the deemed income. But the Sindh High Court (SHC) through its order late October 2022 rejected the petitions and allowed the FBR to levy and collect the tax.
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The FBR through a circular highlighted basic points of tax on deemed income from immovable property.
According the FBR, a new section 7E has been introduced through Finance Act, 2022 whereby for tax year 2022 and onwards, a resident person is treated to have derived income equal to five percent of fair market value of the capital assets situated in Pakistan which will be chargeable to tax at the rate of 20 per cent under Division VIIIC of Part I of First Schedule of the Ordinance.
Following exclusions have been provided to which this section will not apply:
(i) One capital asset owned by the resident person;
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(ii) Self-owned business premises from where the business is carried out by the persons appearing on the active taxpayer’s list at any time during the year;
(iii) Self-owned agriculture land where agriculture activity is carried out by the person but excluding farmhouse and annexed land. Farmhouse has been defined in this section;
(iv) Capital asset allotted to —
(a) A Shaheed or dependents of a Shaheed belonging to Pakistan Armed Forces;
(b) A person or dependents of a person who dies while in the service of Pakistan armed forces or federal or provincial government;
(c) A war wounded person while in service of Pakistan armed forces or federal or provincial government;
(d) An ex-serviceman and serving personnel of armed forces or ex-employees or serving personnel of federal and provincial governments who are original allotees of the capital asset as duly certified by the allotment authority;
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(v) Any property from which income is chargeable to tax under the Ordinance and tax leviable has been paid;
(vi) Capital asset in the first year of acquisition on which tax under section 236K has been paid;
(vii) Where fair market value of the capital assets in aggregate excluding capital assets mentioned in serial nos. (i) to (vi) above does not exceed rupees twenty-five million;
(viii) Capital assets which are owned by a provincial government or local government;
(ix) Capital assets owned by local authority, a development authority, builders and developers for land development and construction subject to the condition that such persons are registered with Directorate General of Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions.
Following is the text of Section 7E of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.
(1) For tax year 2022 and onwards, a tax shall be imposed at the rates specified in Division VIIIC of Part-I of the First Schedule on the income specified in this section.
(2) A resident person shall be treated to have derived, as income chargeable to tax under this section, an amount equal to five percent of the fair market value of capital assets situated in Pakistan held on the last day of tax year excluding the following, namely:–
(a) one capital asset owned by the resident person;
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(b) self-owned business premises from where the business is carried out by the persons appearing on the active taxpayers’ list at any time during the year;
(c) self-owned agriculture land where agriculture activity is carried out by person excluding farmhouse and land annexed thereto;
(d) capital asset allotted to –
(i) a Shaheed or dependents of a shaheed belonging to Pakistan Armed Forces;
(ii) a person or dependents of the person who dies while in the service of Pakistan armed forces or Federal or provincial government;
(iii) a war wounded person while in service of Pakistan armed forces or Federal or provincial government; and
(iv) an ex-serviceman and serving personal of armed forces or ex-employees or serving personnel of Federal and provincial governments, being original allottees of the capital asset duly certified by the allotment authority;
(e) any property from which income is chargeable to tax under the Ordinance and tax leviable is paid thereon;
(f) capital asset in the first tax year of acquisition where tax under section 236K has been paid;
(g) where the fair market value of the capital assets in aggregate excluding the capital assets mentioned in clauses (a), (b), (c), (d), (e) and (f) does not exceed Rupees twenty-five million;
(h) capital assets owned by a provincial government or a local government; or
(i) capital assets owned by a local authority, a development authority, builders and developers for land development and construction, subject to the condition that such persons are registered with Directorate General of Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions.
(3) The Federal Government may include or exclude any person or property for the purpose of this section.
(4) In this section–
(a) “capital asset” means property of any kind held by a person, whether or not connected with a business, but does not include –
(i) any stock-in-trade, consumable stores or raw materials held for the purpose of business;
(ii) any shares, stocks or securities;
(iii) any property with respect to which the person is entitled to a depreciation deduction under section 22 or amortization deduction under section 24; or
(iv) any movable asset not mentioned in clauses (i), (ii) or (iii);
(b) “farmhouse” means a house constructed on a total minimum area of 2000 square yards with a minimum covered area of 5000 square feet used as a single dwelling unit with or without an annex:
Provided that where there are more than one dwelling units in a compound and the average area of the compound is more than 2000 square yards for a dwelling unit, each one of such dwelling units shall be treated as a separate farmhouse.