Freelancers, Vloggers to be brought into Tax Net in upcoming budget?

Islamabad – Pakistani government is intensifying its efforts to implement tax reforms aimed at expanding the tax base and increasing revenue to fix the broken economy, and now authorities are shifting focus on high net-worth individuals including freelancers and vloggers who earn in dollars.

Senior journalist Saleh Zafar, in his recent article published in Urdu publication, claimed that the government is reviewing proposals to introduce taxes on content creators.

He said  Federal Board of Revenue of Pakistan has proposed to impose equal income tax on salary and uniform business income, increase taxes, and bring freelancers and vloggers into the tax net.

He further mentioned the proposal to impose tax on remittances while agricultural income tax will be imposed after final nod.

Under new measures, the alliance government is considering to collect income tax on higher pensions from next fiscal year. The government has started considering various proposals to increase income tax collection in the upcoming fiscal year’s budget.

IMF demanded taxes on various types of income, and different proposals have been prepared to implement agricultural income tax. The collection of agricultural income tax is likely to be assigned to the FBR.

The global lender also pointed out that influential segments are hiding their actual income in the agricultural sector. Imposing agricultural income tax is an important structural benchmark of the new program.