Afghan and Pakistan officials negotiate double taxation agreement

Afghanistan and Pakistan have negotiated a Double Taxation Agreement (DTA) which will help strengthen existing economic and trade ties.

The tax treaty was agreed to during negotiations between officials from the Afghan Ministry of Finance and Pakistan’s Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) officials in Islamabad but still needs to be finalized.

The Afghan ministry of finance said the main purpose of its visit by officials to Pakistan was to discuss ways to avoid double taxation.

The agreement on the avoidance of double taxation addresses the issue of mutual taxation and that traders operating in both Afghanistan and Pakistan will be taxed in only one country.

The finance ministry said it had already held encouraging talks with the United Arab Emirates, India, Iran and Turkey on the same issue.

The first round of negotiations on the DTA between Pakistan and Afghanistan was held in March 2016 but no agreement was finalized.

Now, however, Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) officials are hopeful that the agreement will be finalized during this round of negotiations so that the treaty can be implemented by both countries.