Sajid Hotiana Law Associates

29/06/2017

The concealment of the parameters for selection of cases for Income Tax audit by the FBR was challenged before the Honourable Peshawar High Court, Peshawar, where it was argued by our senior partner, Mr. Sajid Hotiana that once a taxpayer had been selected for audit by the FBR on the basis of parameters as compared to the previous random mode of selection, it was warranted under law that such parameters be disclosed to the taxpayer so as to enhance the taxpayer's confidence and ensure compliance by the taxpayer with the fiscal obligations of the Country. The Honourable Court was although pleased to uphold the right of FBR to conceal the parameters in light of Sub-Section (1A) of Section 214C of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, however, the Honourable Court directed FBR to revisit its audit policy on the gorund that such concealment of the parameters was in conflict with the Board's approach to increase confidence of the taxpayers as enunciated in the Audit Policy 2016.

01/06/2017

Recently, our senior partner, Mr. Sajid Hotiana appeared before the Apex Court while challenging the concurrent findings of the Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue, Islamabad, as well as the Hon' Able Islamabad High Court, Islamabad, whereby appeals against Orders-in-Originals were not entertained by the two forums on the ground that since the taxpayer had challenged the show cause notices before the Federal Tax Ombudsman, hence, there was a bar of jurisdiction as contained in Section 18 of th e Federal Tax Ombudsman Institutional Reforms Act, 2013.
It was argued by the Learned Counsel that the vires of a show cause notice and the merits of the factual allegations in such show cause notice were two distinct issues and therefore, the bar of section 18 was not applicable to such cases.
The Apex Court, while agreeing with the arguments and allowing the appeal, has been pleased to hold that the bar provided for in section 18 cannot be interpreted so as to deny the taxpayer statutory right of appeal as provided for under the fiscal statutes and therefore, while setting aside the orders of the Appellate Tribunal and the Islamabad High Court, the Apex Court remanded the matter back to the Appellate Tribunal to adjudicate upon the Order-in-Original on merits.

31/03/2017

While representing and working with the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, our senior partner Mr. Sajid Hotiana emphasized before the Honourable Court the importance of standards of higher education and the severe detrimental effect of degrees issued by such illegal campuses.

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday directed the interior ministry to place the owner of Preston Institute of...