LAHORE: The Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) has directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to refund fraudulent recovery of tax out of the account of a deceased person, said sources.
A widow of Shafique Ahmed Qureshi, the deceased taxpayer, had approached the FTO against the Commissioner-IR, Enforcement-II, Medium Tax Office (MTO) Karachi, contending that her spouse was a member of an association of persons (AOP) engaged in the construction business. She said an amount of Rs 8.1million was withdrawn from the deceased’s bank accounts as recovery of outstanding demand against AOP for the Tax Years 2017 of Rs3.8 million. She added that the recovery was carried out from the account of his deceased spouse in spite of the fact that he had resigned from the company in 2015. It is further contended that the legal heirs were not in the knowledge of all these facts but only after obtaining succession certificate from the court.
The FTO sought comments and the relevant office, which submitted that the demand was outstanding against M/s. S.B. Builders & Developers. Therefore, the recovery was made after attaching the bank accounts under of Shafique Ahmed Qureshi being one of the members of the said AOP. It was further pointed out that Shafique Ahmed Qureshi had neither approached the department regarding his retirement from the company nor submitted dissolution of partnership deed. His widow filed the complaint after the passage of 17 months against the recovery of outstanding demand producing a private document that her deceased husband Shafique Ahmed Qureshi had retired from the partnership.
Sources said a perusal of record confirmed that the withdrawal was made on the same date when the bank record was updated. The FTO has found that the amount of Rs3.8 million recovered by the department against demand of tax year 2017 is not in accordance with law as the deceased was not member of AOP during the relevant tax period; therefore, unauthorized amount is liable to be refunded to legal heirs of the deceased. Accordingly, the FTO has required from the relevant office to refund the amount recovered through attachment against the demand of tax year 2017.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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