KARACHI: The Ambassador of the Kingdom of Netherlands to Pakistan, Jeannette Seppen, visited the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Headquarters to mark the commencement of negotiations on a new avoidance of the Double Taxation Agreement between both countries. The Ambassador stated that Pakistan and The Netherlands enjoy a friendly relationship and highlighted various areas of cooperation amongst the two countries. She thanked the Chairman for the invitation to the FBR and expressed hope that the negotiation teams will create a win-win situation for both the countries and come up with an agreement which encourages trade and investment between Pakistan and Netherlands. Dr. Muhammad Irshad, Chairman of the FBR and Secretary of the Revenue Division in his opening remarks highlighted the importance of Double Taxation Agreements to resolve double taxation issues which might arise in levying personal and corporate income tax on cross-border activities. The Chairman believed that such agreements encourage cross border trade and investment by assuring the certainty of tax treatment and removal of double taxation of the same income in the two contracting states. The Chairman also said that many changes have occurred in recently, both in the global and domestic tax and economic environments across the world. Business patterns have changed which now require specific tax treatments. The Chairman further stated that the FBR would like to foster its relationship with the Ministry of Finance of Netherlands in various OECD initiatives such as BEPS Package and Automatic Exchange of Information. The two countries can then move forward in the areas of mutual assistance in tax matters and all three types of the exchanges of information. Rematullah Khan Wazir, Member of Inland Revenue Policy shared that Pakistan and the Netherlands have had an Avoidance of Double Agreement in place since 1982 which has been functioning very well. In 2014, the Netherlands proposed certain amendments to the existing treaty and Pakistan welcomed the proposal of renegotiation, having also proposed certain provisions to be incorporated into the existing treaty.