‘Unconstitutional’ windfall tax–I
Banks have regular windfall income from dealing in foreign currencies – oxymoronic treatment by SRO. 1588(I)/2023 dated 21.11.2023. In Pakistan, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is de facto legislature (sic)…
Budgets 2024: thinking afresh
“Simplify taxes, reduce the cost of excessive documentation, open the economy for higher growth and employment, taxes too will increase”—Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) Policy Viewpoint [16:2020] Doing Taxes…
Section 7E: Constitutional validity
Taxing immoveable property and taxing income arising from immoveable property are two different concepts. The former is the burden on immovable property whereas the latter is the burden on the…
Tax on undistributed reserves
This is not the first time that there is a proposal to tax undistributed reserves of a company. Such imposition has been attempted at least twice before under sections 12(9A)…
Against ‘liberal interpretation’
In the world of constitutional law, differences of interpretation make all the difference. Take, for instance, the issue of federal-provincial distribution of powers. What powers will the centre have and…
Legal fiction, Section 7E & Constitution
The Elahi Cotton case (it is the most misunderstood and misapplied judgement) makes absolutely clear that any item to be taxed should rationally be capable of being considered as the…
Putting the record straight: a rejoinder
In response to our article [FBR: dismal income tax collection, Business Recorder, November 11, 2022], the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on its website issued Clarification I on November 12,…
FBR: dismal income tax collection
The continuously declining dismal share of income tax in overall tax collection during the last many years testifies to the lack of judicious balance between direct and indirect taxes, resulting…
Deemed rent–indeed, a bad law
This is the second article on the subject. A concept of tax on deemed rent has been introduced by the Finance Act, 2022. For the reasons laid down in the…
Wealth tax in the guise of deemed income
Whenever historians will write the history of an abusive, incorrect, absurd and technically incorrect tax imposition anywhere in the world they will censure Pakistan for its ‘presumptive’ and ‘minimum’ tax…
