KARACHI: Pakistan’s tax professionals have urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to immediately resolve a series of legal, operational and technical issues affecting the Income Tax Return Form for Tax Year 2026 on the IRIS portal.
In a follow-up communication, the tax body highlighted several unresolved problems that it says are making it difficult for taxpayers to submit complete and accurate returns within the prescribed period. The concerns include extensive disclosure requirements, slow portal performance and insufficient time to comply with the finalised return form.
The corporate return became available on August 27, while the final return form was notified on September 2, 2026. Although the filing deadline was extended to October 15, taxpayers have been told that the additional time remains inadequate considering the volume of information required and continuing system constraints.
Among the newly identified IRIS issues is the system’s inability to calculate tax credit on donations against Super Tax under Section 4C. Tax professionals have requested FBR to correct the backend computation to ensure taxpayers receive the credit provided under the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.
Another concern involves non-resident members of an Association of Persons (AOP), who are reportedly being required to submit Wealth Statements before filing their returns. The tax professionals have asked FBR to remove what they describe as an unwarranted system requirement.
The IRIS portal is also reportedly preventing some taxpayers from filing revised returns and Wealth Statements. In addition, separate Foreign Wealth and Foreign Income Statements under Section 116A are currently unavailable on the portal for Tax Year 2026.
Previously highlighted issues remain unresolved as well. These include incorrect minimum tax calculations, a Rs200,000 restriction on adjustment of previous years’ tax refunds, the absence of refund applications for Tax Year 2026 and the lack of downloadable filing acknowledgements.
The tax professionals also raised concerns over IRIS accepting financial statements in CSV format but not XLSX, despite both formats being covered under the definition of electronically readable formats. They further sought facilities for reporting negative balances and simplifying shareholder disclosures.
They have called on FBR to remove unlawful system restrictions, ensure stable IRIS operations, rationalise disclosure requirements and urgently rectify the identified deficiencies before the approaching filing deadline.
