ISLAMABAD, (DNA) – Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Monday has launched an action against those Pakistanis who are having properties in United Kingdom (UK).

FBR Chairperson Rukhsana Yasmeen claimed that information has been collected with the assistance of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) from UK tax authority in this regard.

She said the details, largely be related to details of the bank accounts, were being analyzed for taking further action.

It is to be mentioned here that the notices will be sent in two phases after expiry of amnesty scheme.

In the first phase, notices will be sent to one thousand Pakistanis in the United Kingdom. The UK tax authorities have shared with FBR full details of Pakistanis owning properties and earning rental incomes.

In the second phase, notices will be issued to another five hundred Pakistanis who have purchased properties in UAE.

Pakistan had signed the OECD Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters in September 2016, and Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Sharing (BEPS) as well as Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Financial Accounts (MCAA) in June 2017.

Becoming signatory of the OECD convention facilitates international cooperation on national tax laws and provides administrative cooperation among member countries to combat tax evasion.

The government had recently announced amnesty schemes including Voluntary Declaration of Domestic Assets Act, 2018 and Foreign Assets (Declaration and Repatriation) Act, 2018 which received unprecedented response.

Over 55,225 declarations have been filed with declared value of foreign assets around Rs577 billion and that of domestic assets around Rs1192 billion.

The declarants paid around Rs97 billion taxes including Rs36 billion on foreign assets and Rs61 billion on domestic assets, whereas $40 million were repatriated.