Moveable and immovable assets created from income on agriculture henceforth shall be accepted only up to the level of agriculture income tax paid under the relevant provincial law, says the Finance Bill 2013 presented to the National Assembly on Wednesday. Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in his budget speech also made the announcement to the effect.

According to tax experts, this measure implies that assets created from agri-income in previous years shall be accepted "with no questions asked" by the authorities. The law has to be prospective and restrospectivity in law has been ruled illegal by the courts. According to Dar, the above move is meant to plug whitening of non-tax paid income by the urbanities. It is claimed by FBR that a number of professionals such as lawyers, doctors as well as bureaucrats use the agri-window to justify their expenditure as well as owning of assets.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2013