Karachi: Pakistan’s tax authorities decided to start exchanging information of bank account holders with the member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) from the mid of the next year to jointly combat tax evasion, officials said yesterday.
“The FBR (Federal Board of Revenue) is discussing modalities with the banks to set up a system for exchanging information with member countries of OECD,” a senior tax official said, requesting anonymity. “This system will be applicable from the tax year 2018 (July 2017-June 2018).”
Pakistan, in September, signed the OECD multilateral convention against offshore tax evasion and avoidance. The convention provides all forms of administrative assistance in tax matters, including on-request, spontaneous and automatic information exchange, tax examination and collection assistance. The cabinet has ratified the multilateral convention.
The official said the new system would enable OECD members to receive information about bank accounts of their nationals in Pakistan. “Likewise, we will also able to get information of our citizens having bank accounts abroad.”
“An important meeting was held in Islamabad with the officials of HM Revenue and Customs (UK’s tax authority) to resolve the issues pertaining to online dissemination of information about account holders,” the official added.
The government, in the budget 2015/16, introduced amendments into the income tax laws.
