By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue extended the deadline for filing income tax returns for the 2025 tax year by 15 days on Tuesday, reversing a stance it took just hours earlier and granting relief to taxpayers amid mounting complaints.
The new cutoff is October 15, up from the original September 30 deadline, the FBR said in an official communication.
“In exercise of the powers conferred under Section 214A of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, the Federal Board of Revenue is pleased to communicate that the date of filing of Income Tax Return for Tax Year 2025, for the persons who were required to file their returns by September 30th, 2025 is extended to October 15th, 2025, in view of the requests from various trade bodies, taxpayers and tax bar associations,” the board stated.
The extension marks a rapid about-face for the tax authority, which earlier on Tuesday had ruled out any extension and warned eligible taxpayers to submit their returns by midnight or risk penalties as late filers.
The move comes amid efforts to streamline tax compliance in Pakistan, where low filing rates have long hampered revenue collection. Earlier this month, the FBR acted on direct instructions from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to remove the “estimated market value column” from the 2025 income tax return form, a step aimed at easing the burden on filers.
That decision followed Sharif’s formation of a high-level committee, chaired by Federal Minister for Law Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar, to scrutinise a new column in the IRIS tax return system. The column had required filers to declare the estimated fair market value of movable and immovable assets, prompting concerns over its impact.
The committee’s mandate, as outlined in a government news release, was to “examine the new column introduced by FBR in the IRIS tax return requiring tax filers to declare the estimated fair market value of moveable and immovable assets, assess its implications for the tax filers, and recommend corrective measures or improvements.”
Its members included the petroleum minister, state minister for finance, attorney general for Pakistan, special assistant to the prime minister on coordination in the office of the deputy prime minister, secretary finance, chairman FBR and member customs FBR.
The panel’s review led to the swift excision of the disputed column, part of broader government pushes to boost taxpayer participation without added complexities.
Pakistan, home to more than 240 million people, struggles with one of the region’s lowest tax-to-GDP ratios and has a history of falling short on collection targets. In June, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government set a record-high target of Rs14.13 trillion for the 2025-26 fiscal year, a 9% increase from the previous year. Officials say achieving the goal is crucial to curbing dependence on foreign borrowing and bolstering long-term fiscal health.
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