Business Desk 
Aug 13, 2025
Tax professionals, chartered accountants and legal advisers are expressing serious problems with filing income tax returns for the tax year 2025, warning that delay could jeopardise compliance with the statutory deadline of September 30, 2025.
The International Lawyers Association (ILA) has written to the FBR Chairman explaining ongoing problems. The draft Income Tax Return issued under Rule 34A was issued via SRO 1212(1)/2025 dated July 8, 2025, requiring notification of significance to the final return within thirty days. To date, a final return is not available, leaving taxpayers and professionals speculating.
The ILA also pointed out that technical issues continued with the IRIS e-filing system. These issues included prolonged or failed logins, dropping systems, incomplete prefilled data and differences in the treatment of tax withheld under Sections 148, 154 and 235.
Non-resident taxpayers are uniquely disadvantaged because the portal does not open a return form nor allow submission.
The reported disadvantages include delays in updates to return forms, inaccurate carry-forward losses, inconsistent wealth statements, and inadequate helpdesk support. The chronic challenges stemming from the software issues, ILA warned, could paralyse the return filing process and could result in significant leakages in revenue while eroding public confidence in Pakistan's tax system.
The association urged the FBR to immediately issue the final return, fix system glitches, ensure accurate pre-filled data, resolve non-resident filing blocks, and strengthen server performance, especially during peak filing periods. They also called for enhanced taxpayer support services to handle complaints swiftly.
The Lahore Chapter of ILA, representing over 3,000 solicitors, advocates, and tax experts, emphasised that addressing these issues is critical to ensure timely tax compliance and maintain trust in the national tax administration.
