A tax lawyer has filed a petition with the Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO), seeking contempt proceedings against relevant officials of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for failing to upload the manual or paper income tax return for Tax Year 2025 within the prescribed time.
Despite a clear directive from the FTO, the FBR has not uploaded the manual return form even seven days after the order’s issuance. The petitioner alleged that the delay reflects “continued mismanagement and inefficiency,” violating statutory timelines and disrupting the compliance process.
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The complaint, submitted by tax lawyer Waheed Shahzad Butt, criticized the FBR’s “incompetence and maladministration,” noting that even by October 22, 2025, the manual tax return form had not been issued. The petition described the situation as a “playful circus” that had caused unnecessary hardship to taxpayers and practitioners who depend on manual filing under the Income Tax Rules, 2002.
In its earlier order, the FTO had directed the FBR to immediately upload and notify the manual/paper income tax return for Tax Year 2025, stressing the need for strict adherence to legal requirements. The order pointed out that under Rule 73(2DD) of the Income Tax Rules, 2002, only individuals earning one million rupees or more are required to file electronically, while those below that threshold must be allowed to file manually.
The FTO observed that the FBR’s failure to issue the manual return for eligible taxpayers constituted a lapse in administrative responsibility and urged immediate compliance.
