WEB DESK: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has announced the imposition of a 10 per cent withholding tax on wedding events in Pakistan, which will be borne by event organisers.
Following a meeting between FBR officials and the Wedding Halls Owners Association, it was decided that the owners of wedding halls would collect this tax on future events.
The decision was made during an FBR meeting with the Wedding Halls Owners Association members, where agreed to collect the amount from wedding halls for future events.
According to the President of the Wedding Halls Association, under the new government policy, it has been prescribed that any individual throwing an event in a wedding hall will necessarily have to pay the 10 per cent withholding tax.
As per the guidance of FBR authorities, the amount so collected will be kept separately from the wedding hall rental charges and sent directly to FBR.
This is part of a larger push for tax reforms by the federal government in conjunction with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). FBR previously connected restaurants and shopping centers with Point of Sale (POS) integration, which drew the ire of traders. Earlier, the Flour Mills Association had gone on strike against the collection of withholding tax by FBR.
This new buildup has also made it mandatory with the last agreement between FBR with wedding hall owners that now any party organizing a function at a wedding venue has to bear the 10 per cent tax withholding above the rental fees submitted directly to FBR.
The association defined that the collection will be maintained this way in future transactions as a difference between the rental hall fee and withholding tax.
