Immoveable properties: FBR's deadline for submission of revised valuations to end today

LAHORE: The Federal Board of Revenue's deadline for submission of revised valuation of immoveable properties by all the field formations will conclude on Wednesday (today). According to reliable sources, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had persuaded the Board for a countrywide fresh valuation.

The Fund had raised objection to the continuity of old valuation despite the fact that the sale and purchase price of immoveable properties had jumped by many times since 2015-16 when the Board had initiated the project of assessing the taxable value of immovable properties alongside the DC rates. It had stressed the Board to carry out a fresh valuation before the start of policy level talks in Washington, likely to take place soon.

Accordingly, the Board had issued a circular earlier last week for an online meeting of focal persons from all the field formations to get feedback up to 13th October 2021. An online meeting of the Board representatives with all the field formations was held on 4th October.

Meanwhile, representatives both from the Large Taxpayer Offices (LTOs) and Corporate Tax Offices (CTOs) had pointed out in the meeting that they were no more dealing with the individual taxpayers who are mostly involved in purchase and sale of properties in general. Instead, they said, the prime task of LTOs and CTOs is to assess the taxable liabilities of the corporate sector where a company seldom enters into a sale and purchase of immovable properties. In the end, said the sources, the Board agreed with the argument and excluded all the LTOs and CTOs in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore from the process.

The Board has made it clear that since the individual taxpayers fall under the jurisdiction of the Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) which would be exclusive in charge of the task from now onwards. The RTOs in some 18 cities would submit revised valuation of immoveable properties to the Board by 5pm on Wednesday.

According to the sources, the field staff of RTOs has carried out surveys, held meetings with real estate agents and collected information from independent sources before recommending a fresh valuation of immoveable properties. It may be noted that the FBR valuation of the properties is almost equivalent to 90 percent of the real value of land in respective cities.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021