Karachi, August 28, 2025 – In a blistering takedown, the Karachi Tax Bar Association (KTBA) has unleashed a scathing critique of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), branding the tax authority’s handling of annual return forms and its glitch-ridden IRIS portal as a “catastrophic failure” that is sabotaging taxpayers across Pakistan.
In a fiery letter to FBR Chairman Rashid Mahmood Langrial, KTBA President Ali A. Rahim accused the revenue body of exhibiting “sheer administrative negligence” by first delaying the release of annual return forms for Tax Year 2025 and now crippling the filing process with a portal plagued by crippling errors and maddeningly slow performance.
The KTBA president did not mince words, stating that the “belated availability of returns on the IRIS portal blatantly violates Rule 34A of the Income Tax Rules, 2002.” He further lambasted FBR for compressing the filing window under Section 118 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, thereby leaving taxpayers and tax professionals grappling with “impossible timelines, unstable systems, and unjust burdens.”
According to KTBA, the IRIS portal has devolved into a technological nightmare riddled with anomalies. Users are facing a barrage of errors, from incorrect pre-populated data to faulty tax computations and failed uploads. In some cases, legal inconsistencies have crept into the system, resulting in inflated liabilities and miscalculated credits – errors that could have grave financial implications for compliant taxpayers.
The association highlighted how the portal repeatedly crashes during peak hours, producing long browsing lags, sudden timeouts, and incomplete transactions. “This is not just inefficiency – this is systemic failure,” KTBA declared, warning that if immediate remedial measures are not taken, the FBR risks triggering a nationwide filing crisis.
To salvage the situation, KTBA has demanded swift intervention, urging FBR to:
1. Initiate a full-scale technical overhaul to eliminate all software anomalies.
2. Expand server capacity and bandwidth to handle high-traffic periods without disruption.
3. Align portal calculations with tax laws to prevent wrongful demands and penalties.
Adding fuel to the fire, KTBA annexed a shocking list of anomalies in the IRIS system, including faulty treatment of surcharge on incomes above PKR 10 million, miscalculated tax credits for donations under Section 61, and rejection of foreign income and assets statements under Section 116A – all pointing to severe compliance gaps within the portal’s programming.
With the filing deadline looming, KTBA warned that unless the FBR acts decisively, taxpayers and professionals alike could face unnecessary penalties, litigation, and a loss of confidence in the revenue system. “This is not just a software glitch,” the association thundered, “this is a credibility crisis for the nation’s tax administration.”