The Republic News News for Everyone | News Aggregator
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) Lifestyle Monitoring Cell has identified more than 20 individuals who own luxury assets worth millions of rupees, frequently travel abroad, and showcase lavish lifestyles on social media — yet declare little to no income or assets in their tax returns.
According to official details, one of the flagged cases involves a digital content creator and travel vlogger, whose publicly available Instagram posts revealed extensive international travel between the fiscal years 2020 and 2025.
The individual was seen vacationing in Seychelles in 2020, a destination known for its tropical resorts, though no international travel was recorded in 2021, likely due to COVID-19 restrictions.
In 2022, the vlogger reportedly visited the UAE (Dubai), the Philippines, Spain, and the Netherlands. During FY 2023, travel records showed trips to Türkiye, the United Kingdom, the Maldives, and Georgia.
The Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) Lifestyle Monitoring Cell has unearthed a series of glaring discrepancies between declared incomes and actual lifestyles of multiple individuals, including a popular travel vlogger and several politically connected taxpayers — revealing a pattern of lavish spending, luxury asset ownership, and frequent international travel grossly inconsistent with reported earnings.
According to official documents, when the FBR examined the vlogger’s filed returns, it found that despite evident expenditure on luxury vacations — including a trip to Seychelles — the individual declared an income of only Rs 490,800, expenses of Rs 390,000, and net assets of Rs 1.09 million.
Another major case uncovered by the Lifestyle Monitoring Cell involved undisclosed assets worth Rs 180.5 million, belonging to a man linked to a political family from South Punjab. Publicly available evidence showed ownership and use of four high-end vehicles that were not reported in the tax filings of either the individual or his father.
The vehicles include a Lexus LX 570 (Rs 80 million), Toyota Fortuner Legender (Rs 15 million), Suzuki Hayabusa (Rs 5.5 million), and a BMW i7 luxury electric sedan (Rs 80 million).
Records show the taxpayer registered with the FBR in January 2023, declaring only two motorcycles — a BMW M1000 RR (Rs 14.2 million) and a BMW R1250 GS (Rs 9.8 million) — with a total declared asset value of Rs 31.28 million. In the following year, only one of these motorcycles remained listed, indicating an incomplete disclosure.
The third case, even more striking, involved hidden assets valued at Rs 624 million, including ownership of 19 luxury vehicles, such as sports cars, off-road trucks, and motorbikes. Among the undeclared assets were a Chevrolet Corvette C8 Stingray (Rs 80 million), Range Rover (Rs 80 million), Toyota Land Cruiser 300 series (Rs 90 million), Ford F-150 Raptor (Rs 70 million), Audi Q7 (Rs 30 million), Toyota 4Runner (Rs 60 million), and a Mercedes-Benz sedan (Rs 9 million), alongside several other premium models.
None of these vehicles appeared in the taxpayer’s filed asset statements.
When contacted, an official from the FBR Lifestyle Monitoring Cell confirmed that investigations are ongoing against suspected tax evaders, but said that identities cannot be disclosed under income tax confidentiality laws.
Source link
