ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has removed threshold amount to purchase of immovable properties for collection of withholding tax.
The FBR issued Income Tax Circular No. 09 dated July 30, 2019 and said that through the Finance Act, 2019, the rate of tax on purchase of immovable property under Section 236K of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 has been reduced to 1 percent from 2 percent.
Prior to the Finance Act, 2019, no tax was collected under Section 236K on purchase of property where the value of property up to Rs4 million.
“Through the Finance Act, 2019, the threshold of Rs4 million for collection of tax has been removed. Now tax on purchase of property will be collected on all transactions irrespective of the value of immovable property,” the FBR said.
The FBR said that tax under section 236C is collected from the seller or transfer at the rate of one percent of the gross amount of consideration received.
Prior to the Finance Act 2019, this tax was not collected if the property was held for a period exceeding three years.
Through the Finance Act, 2019, the period of three years has been extended to five years which means that tax under section 236C shall be collected if the immovable property is held for a period up to five years.
The FBR further explained that as per section 236W read with clause (c) of sub-section (4) of Section 111, every person responsible for registering, recording or attesting transfer of any immovable property was required to collect tax at the rate of 3 percent of the difference between the FBR value of property and the value recorded by the authority registering or attesting the transfer in cases where FBR value was greater than the recorded value.
So by paying three percent on the difference, the purchaser was not required to explain the source of difference of amount between FBR value and the recorded value.
Through Finance Act, 2019, section 236W as well as clause (c) of sub-section (4) of Section 111 have been omitted. Consequently, the purchasers are not required to explain the source of investment of property up to the FBR value of property whereas previously such purchasers were required to explain the source of investment to the extent of recorded value of property.
