Islamabad 13 August: Tax professionals, chartered accountants, tax lawyers, and advisers are facing major hurdles in filing income tax returns for Tax Year 2025, with concerns that the delay in issuing the final return form could prevent timely compliance with the statutory deadline of September 30, 2025.
In a letter to the Chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the International Lawyers Association (ILA) highlighted persistent problems in both the return form approval process and the IRIS e-filing system. The association noted that under SRO 1212(1)/2025, issued on July 8, 2025, the FBR was required to finalize the draft return within 30 days under Rule 34A of the Income Tax Rules, 2002. However, despite the statutory deadline passing, the final return has yet to be issued, creating uncertainty for taxpayers and practitioners.
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The ILA also flagged serious technical glitches in the IRIS portal, including non-adjustment of tax withheld under Section 235 for Associations of Persons (AOPs), inconsistent treatment of taxes under Sections 148 (imports) and 154 (exports), and a complete block on return filing for non-resident taxpayers. Additional issues include login failures, portal slowdowns, incomplete or inaccurate pre-filled withholding data, mismatched records, delays in system updates, and discrepancies in wealth statement reconciliations.
The association warned that these problems, if unresolved, could paralyze the return filing process, harm the national exchequer, and further erode public trust in the tax system. It urged the FBR to immediately issue the final return form, fix the identified glitches, restore non-resident filing access, improve server capacity, ensure accurate pre-filled data, and strengthen helpdesk services for faster complaint resolution.
The International Lawyers Association is a global non-profit body representing legal professionals, with its Lahore chapter actively raising taxpayer concerns in Pakistan.
