The Pakistan Tax Bar Association (PTBA) has asked the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to push the income tax return deadline for Tax Year 2026 to December 2. In a letter to FBR Chairman Rashid Mahmood Langrial, it cited persistent glitches in the IRIS portal, errors in return forms and problems with the minimum tax calculation formula.

The current deadline is October 15, set when FBR extended it from September 30 through Circular No. 3 of 2026-27. The association says that 15-day extension did not adequately address the difficulties taxpayers and tax practitioners face. December 2 would add 48 days, nearly seven weeks.

The October 15 deadline stands for now

A request from tax bodies does not change the date. Until FBR issues a new circular, the October 15 deadline applies, and FBR has urged taxpayers to rely on its official website and verified social media accounts. On September 30, a fake circular claiming an extension was circulating online, and FBR disowned it before announcing the real extension later.

Reports citing FBR sources say the late-filer category ends from October 1, and that individuals who miss the deadline could face a penalty of up to Rs. 25,000 instead of Rs. 1,000. Filing volumes were already high: FBR had received about 5.8 million returns by September 30, against about 3.8 million at the same point last year, ProPakistani reported.

PTBA said technical problems with the portal and slow fixes to errors in the return formats continue to disrupt filing. It also pointed to the time needed to update immovable property details and to provide International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs) for bank accounts.

The minimum tax formula is the main legal complaint

The association said the minimum tax formula in the filing system is being applied wrongly in certain cases. These involve taxpayers under the minimum tax regime who also earn income from another source on which tax is not required to be deducted under that regime.

PTBA said it had raised the issue by email, in the media and in Zoom meetings with the FBR chairman, members and the Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL) team. Despite what it described as a consensus among stakeholders that the formula does not apply in these circumstances, it said FBR has not corrected it.

Many of these complaints are not new. In August, PTBA said the Tax Year 2026 return was uploaded to IRIS on July 27 despite the timeline in Rule 34A of the Income Tax Rules, and it objected to the removal of the auto-save facility. Tax bars also flagged miscalculated minimum tax in the IRIS return form back in 2020. Last year, FBR extended the deadline to October 15 and, according to Pakistan Observer, granted a further extension later.

PTBA has asked FBR to correct the formula and resolve the remaining technical problems in the return forms, along with the new deadline.