FBR imposes 0.5% Tax on E-Commerce Sector

The e-commerce industry is not an untaxed sector anymore as Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) has imposed 0.5% tax on all online business who are earning via online transactions.

According to the amendments posted on FBR’s official website, the authority has placed a concessionary tax on the businesses that are involved in online trading. The new concept is being termed as “online market place.”

Moving forward, the income of all the companies or individuals that are earning via online transactions will have to pay taxes.

E-commerce sector in Pakistan is witnessing a rapid development.  Earlier this year, Alibaba signed a MoU with the with the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) aimed at fostering the growth of worldwide exports of products by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan through e-commerce.

Reportedly, Alibaba will soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)with the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) for the online sale of the products made by the beneficiaries of BISP.

The new tax has been imposed since July 2017. It may hamper the growth of the evolving industry that is still in its development phase.