Pakistan recorded a sharp increase in income tax return filings, with the number of returns reaching 5.77 million by September 30, up nearly 45% year-on-year from 3.98 million a year earlier, according to Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) data.
The latest figure represents an increase of around 1.79 million filings and is nearly three times the 1.86 million returns recorded by the end of September 2022. The filing base has expanded steadily, rising from 1.92 million in 2023 to 3.72 million in 2024, 3.98 million in 2025 and 5.77 million in 2026.
Non-salaried taxpayers, including traders, shopkeepers, professionals and self-employed individuals, accounted for most of the growth. Their filings increased 60% to 3.81 million from 2.38 million last year, adding approximately 1.43 million returns. Non-salaried taxpayers now make up around two-thirds of total filings.
Returns submitted by salaried individuals rose 22% to 1.9 million, while filings by associations of persons, including partnerships, increased 33% to 53,756.
Despite the strong rise in filings, tax payments did not increase at the same pace. Around 39% of returns were nil returns, broadly unchanged from the previous year. Meanwhile, returns declaring income above the taxable threshold rose 37% to nearly 2.5 million from 1.82 million.
Payment filers increased 38% to 3.35 million, with non-salaried payment filers rising by about 50% to 1.75 million. Tax paid with individual returns increased 11% to Rs34.5 billion, while payments from associations of persons rose 16% to Rs3.7 billion.
Company filings, however, declined to 7,953 from 11,206 a year earlier, while tax paid with company returns fell to Rs39.1 billion from Rs49 billion. Consequently, total tax paid with returns dropped around 7% to Rs77.3 billion from Rs83.3 billion despite the significant increase in the number of filings.
FBR officials attributed the decline in company filings mainly to delays as businesses awaited an extension of the filing deadline. With the deadline now extended, officials expect company filings and related tax payments to increase in the coming weeks.
