FBR seeks rent agreements from police

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Thursday issued notices to all police stations in Karachi for collecting information of rented commercial and residential properties.

The Broadening of Tax Base (BTB) Wing of Regional Tax Office (RTO)-II issued notices to Station House Officers (SHOs) to provide the details of address of premises, rental agreement date and type of properties such as commercial and residential.

As per Sindh Information of Temporary Residents Act, 2015, the police stations were required to maintain a database of all the tenants and guests by categorising them in the prescribed manner. FBR sources said the initiative had been launched to bring people into the tax net, besides to ascertain the tax collection on the rental income. The RTO-II Karachi asked the SHOs to provide details including all agreements registered with the police station during the last year.

Sources said the SHOs had also been asked to provide a copy of all the agreements made during the last year.

The tax offices asked police to provide information by June 17, 2019. The FBR also made it clear through the notice that under Section 182 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, non-compliance to the notice was liable to penalty of Rs25,000 on first default and Rs50,000 for each subsequent defaults.