How to File Your Income Tax Return in Pakistan (Tax Year 2026)

First, make sure you are filing for the right tax year

This trips up more filers than anything else in the process. FBR names a tax year after the calendar year in which it ends, so Tax Year 2026 means the twelve months from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026. Many calculators and articles write that same year as TY 2025-26.

They are the same year. Concretely:

• The return you file by 30 September 2026 is for Tax Year 2026 — income you earned between 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026.
• The rates being deducted from your salary today belong to tax year 2027, also written 2026-27. You will not file that return until late 2027.

So if you are checking your withholding against a rate table, use the TY 2025-26 slabs for the return you are filing now, and the TY 2026-27 slabs for the pay you are receiving now.

Filing on IRIS, step by step

Budget around 45 minutes for a straightforward salaried return if your documents are to hand. The portal is at iris.fbr.gov.pk.

1. 1

   Register on IRIS and get your NTN

   Go to iris.fbr.gov.pk and register using your CNIC, a mobile number registered in your own name, and an email address. Complete Form 181 with your income source and address details. This issues your National Tax Number. Skip this step if you already have an NTN.

2. 2

   Gather your documents

   For a salaried filer: your CNIC, the salary certificate or annual tax deduction certificate from your employer, bank statements for the year, and withholding tax certificates for anything already deducted at source on bank profit, vehicle registration, property transactions or utilities.

3. 3

   Open the return for the right tax year

   Log in to IRIS, choose Declaration, then the income tax return for Tax Year 2026 — the year covering 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026. Selecting the wrong year is the most common filing error, because FBR names the year after the calendar year it ends in.

4. 4

   Declare your income

   Enter salary income from your salary certificate, then any other income under its own head: property rent under section 15, business or freelance income, profit on debt, dividends and capital gains. Each head has its own tab in the return.

5. 5

   Claim deductions, credits and withholding already paid

   Claim the exemptions and allowances you are entitled to, such as the medical allowance and Zakat paid, and any tax credits such as the section 63 credit for a Voluntary Pension Scheme contribution. Then enter the tax already withheld at source, which is credited against your liability and is what produces a refund where it exceeds the tax due.

6. 6

   Complete the wealth statement

   Declare your assets and liabilities as at 30 June, and reconcile the movement against your declared income for the year. The wealth statement is filed alongside the return and is mandatory for individuals.

7. 7

   Verify and submit before the deadline

   Check that the computed tax matches your own calculation, pay any balance due through a Payment Slip ID, then submit. Submit on or before 30 September 2026 to stay on the Active Taxpayers List without penalty or restoration surcharge.

8. 8

   Confirm you are on the Active Taxpayers List

   After filing, verify your status by sending "ATL" followed by a space and your CNIC without dashes to 9966, or by checking atl.fbr.gov.pk. Filing alone is not proof of filer status until your name appears on the list.

An NTN does not make you a filer

This distinction costs people real money, so it is worth being precise about. An NTN means you are registered in FBR’s system. Being a filer means your name appears on the Active Taxpayers List, which happens only after you have actually submitted a return and FBR has processed it.

Plenty of people register once, never file, and spend years paying non-filer withholding rates on their banking, vehicle and property transactions while believing they are compliant because they hold a tax number.

How to check your status

• By SMS: send ATL followed by a space and your CNIC number without dashes to 9966. You get an immediate reply. For a company or AOP, send the NTN instead.
• Online: go to atl.fbr.gov.pk, choose Individual or AOP/Company, and enter your CNIC or NTN.

Being on the list is what entitles you to the lower of the two withholding rates everywhere the law distinguishes them — which, under the Tenth Schedule, is typically half what a non-filer pays. See what that is worth on rental income, where a non-filer landlord is withheld exactly double.

What happens if you file late

Three consequences stack, and they are cumulative rather than alternative:

1. Penalty under section 182. A minimum of PKR 10,000, computed at PKR 1,000 for each day of default.
2. Default surcharge under section 205 on any tax paid late.
3. Removal from the Active Taxpayers List — usually the most expensive of the three, because it raises your withholding rate on every transaction until it is put right.

The ATL restoration surcharge

Getting back onto the list as a late filer now carries its own charge, on top of the penalty:

Who has to file a return

Filing is required of anyone whose taxable income for the year exceeds the basic threshold of PKR 600,000, and of every company and association of persons whatever their income. It is also required in a number of circumstances that have nothing to do with how much you earned, including:

• Owning immovable property above the prescribed size in a municipal area
• Owning a motor vehicle above the prescribed engine capacity
• Holding a commercial or industrial electricity connection
• Being a professional registered with a body such as a bar council, a medical association or a chamber of commerce

A salaried employee whose employer has already withheld the full tax under section 149 still has to file. The withholding settles the liability; the return is what reports it and what puts you on the ATL. You can check what your employer should have withheld with the salary tax calculator.

Filing FAQs

Before you rely on this

This is an independent guide, not an FBR publication, and IRIS changes between filing seasons — screens move and fields are added. Treat the sequence above as the shape of the process rather than a literal click-path, and check the deadline against FBR’s own announcements, since extensions are granted late and are not always widely reported.

Where your position is not straightforward — business income with expenses to claim, multiple rental properties, foreign income or assets, capital gains, or a refund claim — the cost of a practitioner is generally far less than the cost of a wrong declaration.