KTBA urges FBR to remove IRIS errors

The Karachi Tax Bar Association has written to the FBR asking it to review the IRIS portal's tax liability calculations at once, according to Business Recorder. The group says its members cannot find a legal foundation for the figures the system generates while Tax Year 2026 return filing is already under way. In a letter sent on Friday to the FBR's Member Operations wing, the KTBA argues that the portal produces a minimum tax difference without showing its formula or the provision of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 behind it.

The association notes that the Ordinance is built on self-assessment, so taxpayers rather than the portal should determine liability from their own business streams, receipts and allowable deductions. It also says IRIS sometimes applies normal tax rates without crediting tax already collected or deducted at source under Section 153, which taxes the same income a second time despite earlier withholding. Any minimum-tax comparison, the KTBA says, should be made against the normal tax a taxpayer has already computed and declared, not against an automatic averaged rate or a mechanical split of receipts.

The KTBA wants the restriction removed immediately and says IRIS should help implement the law rather than predetermine taxpayer liability. It has asked the Board to let taxpayers disclose relevant facts and complete lawful computations without system-imposed constraints.