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
A Pakistani bank account

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. 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
Register with the Punjab Revenue Authority if you provide services
Sales tax on services is a provincial tax, and in Lahore that is the PRA — not the FBR and not Sindh's SRB. Consultants and service companies here deal with two authorities on two different bases, with separate registration and separate returns.
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. It is small, it is easy to overlook, and it is 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

The residency test is 183 days in a year that ends on 30 June.

A resident individual is one present in Pakistan for 183 days or more in the tax year, and Pakistan's tax year runs July to June. Residence brings worldwide income into charge, not just Pakistani earnings. Someone arriving in the first quarter of the calendar year can cross the threshold in a way a calendar-year mental model does not predict, and the same arithmetic matters in reverse in a departure year. Count the days rather than assuming.

Source: Federal Board of Revenue

The Punjab Revenue Authority is a different tax authority from both the FBR and Sindh's board.

Pakistan's provinces levy sales tax on services separately, each with its own authority, registration, returns and rates. In Lahore that is the PRA. A service business here files federally for income tax and provincially with the PRA for sales tax on services. Advisers are frequently strong on one and not registered with the other, and a Karachi adviser fluent with the Sindh Revenue Board is not automatically the right person for a Lahore file.

Source: Punjab Revenue Authority

Filer status is a discount on transactions, not a statement about honesty.

The Active Taxpayers List determines your withholding rate 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. For anyone buying property in Lahore this single mechanism outweighs most deductions.

Source: Federal Board of Revenue

The IT export tax concession is real, valuable to Lahore specifically, and its terms keep changing.

Pakistan taxes earnings from exported IT and IT-enabled services on a concessional basis rather than at ordinary rates, which is a substantial part of why the software export sector clustered around Lahore has grown as it has. Successive Finance Acts have extended, repriced and re-scoped the concession. Anyone structuring income around it — a contractor invoicing foreign clients, a small software house — should confirm the current position with the FBR directly. This is precisely 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 model to a July–June tax year.
Assuming an NTN makes you a filer.
Engaging an adviser registered with the Sindh Revenue Board for a Punjab Revenue Authority matter.
Overlooking Punjab's small professional tax entirely.
Relying on a secondary source for the current IT export concession.

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