Taxation on PAYONEER withdrawls- Pakistani community Please help

subhan04

Dear friends,

I am a freelancer and I am from PAKISTAN. I receive payments to my payoneer account from fiverr and then I withdraw through my card. I want to ask that withdraw through payoneer card is considered as a foreign remittance or not? As per pakistan tax law all foreign remittance is exempt from tax. So can we show this income to FBR and can claim for tax exempt purpose? or FBR will treat payoneer amount completely taxable like other local banks? Please help!

maaiz

Kindly read the said discussion for getting your answer

http://community.payoneer.com/en/discussion/comment/120421/#Comment_120421

unstopabl3

> @maaiz said:
> Kindly read the said discussion for getting your answer
>
>

Hi "maaiz" I've withdrawn a couple of payments from my Payoneer account to my local bank and it shows as " 1Link-Atm Inter Bank Transfer " on the bank statement which is similar to what you see when somebody sends you money from a local bank account to your bank account.

So my question is what evidence do we have to prove that this is foreign remittance? There are no transaction details on the bank statement and no mentioning of Foreign Transfer or Remittance.

Hope you get what I'm trying to say.

Thanks

maaiz

unstopabl3 Thanks for your message. According to my information and experience with HBL it is considered HOME REMITTANCE as there is no link of local amount transferring for the said type of transaction. However in both cases you should not worried about this matter as every transaction is made by proper banking channel and you have proper record in respect of Bank Statement. i request to all other users please dont create "hype about tax" . it is simple home remittance and individual income figures are very small earned by freelancing, online portals etc. i never find a single person on this portal ( Pakistan Community) who show screen shot of withdrawal above 3 thousand per month and even it is considered home remittance instead of commercial. So kindly relax free. you have bank statements and it is bank responsibility to show that how they get funds in front of concerned authorities if any. Last answer for all users. there is ZERO TAX for receiving payment via payoneer through bank transfer as said amounts are considered " HOME REMITTANCE"
Just relax all brother & sisters about this and "hype about tax" should be closed now as very detailed and logical answers are given here and all concerned sections.
Regards

princeali7

This is not a way to end the tread, we should ask Payoneer to send payment in proper banking way so we can ask our bank for Remittance Certiface to File our taxes.

Please guy get active here so you can this done

sraza

Hi guys,

Yesterday, I withdraw funds from my payoneer account via "Bank transfer". I received the amount within 2 hours and I was surprised to see the amount which transferred in my account came as a local transfer instead of an international wire transfer.

The problem here is that there is no indication within the bank statement that the amount came from official channel (Payoneer) and for me is a big problem. I can't declare this income as an official income to FBR and this can be treated as an income on which I have to pay tax as well.

Please advise what should be the best way to deal this case? I have seen the comments from Maaiz which are not helpful at all and he is just trying to avoid this matter.

@Payoneer: Please look into this matter at your urgent because I need some proof that the payment is coming from Payoneer rather than coming from an individual.

Thanks

nsaeed

Hi Everyone,

I have contacted payoneer support for this as well, i am currently facing an audit by FBR and just by getting selected for audit they have frozen my bank account even before i can submit the documents within due date, this is horrible and unbelievable, However i filed my return correctly and now i am seeking different statements from bank, i think FBR officials will not accept the email mentioning a USD converting to PKR and the bank statement mention it as 1 link transfer through IBFT. So i have requested payoneer to tell me a bank where i can go and request for a foreign remittance certificate, because it really is a foreign income for an IT professional but how we can prove it to less knowledgeable FBR officials? They work only on signed and stamped papers/certificates. If anyone know a solution please share while i wait for payoneer to suggest something.

Thanks

ahmed_29

@nsaeed
Please update us about your case with FBR, any one of us may also face the similar situation.
My monthly withdrawals from Payoneer are much more than the normal freelancers, it can be upto 6k USD. So far i have not faced any issue and my bank says that this money comes as remittance.

Why was your bank account frozen, did they tell you any reason? how much was your monthly withdrawals from Payoneer ?

uk21

@ahmed_29 ..I have a similar situation but my Bank doesn't recognize the transaction as remittance, could you please share in which Bank do you have your account and do they give you any remittance certificate?

uk21

@nsaeed .. If you could please share an update of your case, it would be highly appreciated and would help answer a lot of questions.

asifmahmood83

Any update on this thread? This is confirm that every bank shows the Payoneer Withdraw as a 1-Link Transfer in the bank statement which looks like a local transfer from someone. By this, we cannot prove that its a foreign remittance at individual level though Bank might be able to show this at their level. This can be a serious concern for the people in Pakistan as FBR rules are now quite strict for the tax declaration. If we cannot declare this as foregin remittance to FBR then we have to pay tax on the withdraw amount to get it legalized otherwise FBR can penalize the individual. As per @maaiz Payoneer has nothing to do with the Taxation that is right but Payoneer should send the money in a way that is convenient for the person receiving money and is declarable foreign remittance. Currently, Payoneer has started giving a letter which can be downloaded against the Withdraw Tranasction when you click on the detail. This letter is somewhat declaration that this money is being sent by the Payoneer to the person but as it is not received as foreign remittance for individual they might have to pay tax. Not sure how FBR is handling it but as per rules, they would consider it as a normal income and taxable.
By the way, I am quite an old user of Payoneer and using it since 2008/9. They started the service earlier for withdraw as Global Transfers during 2015/16 and at that time the withdrawal was used to received as a proper Foreign Remittance in local banks. I have lot of withdrawals during that time and I got a proper Foreign Remittance certificate from the Bank (Askari & UBL Bank). Now, I don't know why they have changed their process and it has become like a local transfer which is problematic for everyone. Would like to hear from someone who has get through this successfully and have any confirmation from the Tax authority.