Before you start

A National Tax Number obtained through the FBR's IRIS portal
A day count for the tax year
Salary certificates and any foreign income records
PRA registration, if you provide taxable services from Punjab

Step-by-step

1
Count your days against a July–June year
183 days or more of presence in the tax year makes you a resident individual taxed on worldwide income rather than only on Pakistan-source income. The year ends 30 June, so an arrival in spring crosses the line differently from what a calendar-year assumption predicts. Count deliberately in your first and last years.
OnlineWho: YouOn arrival
2
Register for an NTN on IRIS
Pakistani individuals use the CNIC as their tax number; a foreign national registers separately on the FBR's IRIS portal. Do it early — banks want it and several transactions are cheaper with it.
OnlineWho: YouMonth 1
3
File on time, every year, even on withheld salary
Filing is the act that places you on the Active Taxpayers List. The list rebuilds weekly and late filers are admitted only on payment of a surcharge. Salary tax deducted at source does not remove the filing obligation.
OnlineWho: YouAnnually, by the FBR due date
4
Re-check whether your services are caught under the post-2025 Punjab schedules
Sales tax on services is provincial, and in Faisalabad that is the Punjab Revenue Authority — not the FBR, not Sindh's SRB and not KP's KPRA. Since the Punjab Finance Act 2025 the schedules are reorganised so that services are taxable unless listed as tax-free, with separate parts for standard, fixed and reduced rates. If you concluded before 2025 that your service was outside the net, that conclusion needs redoing.
OnlineWho: You
5
Check the professional tax position
Punjab levies a professions, trades and callings tax administered through the Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control Department, assessed on businesses and professionals rather than on employees. It is small, it is easy to overlook, and it is entirely separate from anything the FBR does.
OnlineWho: You
6
Resolve the treaty position on foreign income in year one
Pakistan has a wide double taxation treaty network. If you are resident here and taxed elsewhere on the same income, the treaty and the foreign tax credit rules decide the outcome. This is the part worth paying an adviser for, once.
OnlineWho: You

Documents you’ll need

NTN and IRIS login
Salary certificate and withholding statements
Bank statements
Records of foreign income and foreign tax paid
PRA registration, for service businesses

Things most newcomers don’t know

Punjab flipped its services tax from a positive list to a negative one in 2025, and that inverts the first question you ask.

The Punjab Sales Tax on Services Act 2012 historically taxed only services specified in its schedules. The Punjab Finance Bill presented on 16 June 2025 restructured them — a new First Schedule of tax-free services and a new Second Schedule of taxable ones split into standard, fixed and reduced rate parts — so that services are now taxable unless explicitly exempted. Exemptions were retained for public healthcare and education, public transport, residential rents and services provided by registered charities and INGOs, among others. For anyone providing services in Faisalabad the question is no longer 'is my service listed' but 'is it exempt', and a pre-2025 opinion is not reliable.

Source: Punjab Finance Bill 2025 commentary

Sixteen percent here, fifteen in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the two provinces do not structure the tax the same way.

Punjab's standard rate is sixteen percent under the Punjab Sales Tax on Services Act 2012 as amended. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's is fifteen, fixed by a proviso to section 9 of its own 2022 Act as the standard or general rate. Where you invoice from changes the rate and the analysis, and advisers specialise by province — 'we handle Pakistan' should always be tested with 'are you registered with the PRA?'.

Source: Punjab Revenue Authority; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority

Filer status is a transactional discount, not a statement about honesty, and it lapses.

The Active Taxpayers List determines withholding on property purchases, vehicle registration, dividends and certain banking activity, and the gap between filer and non-filer rates is large. An NTN alone does not get you on the list — filing by the due date does, and late filers pay a surcharge to be admitted. Because the list rebuilds weekly, a missed year drops you off it. In a city where a great many people buy vehicles and commercial property, this single mechanism outweighs most deductions.

Source: Federal Board of Revenue

If your income touches exports, the federal position is where the money is and it moves every Finance Act.

Pakistan taxes textile and other exporters and IT and IT-enabled service exporters under regimes that have been repeatedly restructured — the export tax treatment in particular has shifted between final and minimum tax bases in recent Finance Acts, changing the arithmetic substantially for the businesses this city is built on. Anyone structuring income around it should confirm the current position with the FBR directly rather than relying on a secondary source, because this is exactly the sort of provision that is settled background knowledge right up until it is not.

Source: Federal Board of Revenue

Common mistakes to avoid

Applying a calendar-year mental model to a July–June tax year.
Relying on a pre-2025 conclusion that your service was outside Punjab's tax net.
Assuming an NTN makes you a filer.
Engaging an adviser registered with the Sindh Revenue Board or the KPRA for a Punjab Revenue Authority matter.
Overlooking Punjab's small professional tax entirely.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.