ISLAMABAD: The Lahore Tax Bar Association (LTBA PILC) has reported that the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) electronic filing system failed to support taxpayers attempting to submit their annual income tax returns and wealth statements for Tax Year 2026 on Tuesday, 15 September.
LTBA PILC Chairman Waheed Butt said taxpayers, tax practitioners and lawyers across the country encountered repeated technical faults, slow response times and service interruptions on the IRIS portal, leaving many unable to complete submissions within the prescribed window.
Butt maintained that the FBR’s IT wing needs to treat the matter as a priority and review how IRIS responds to consultants and legal representatives, so the return filing exercise is not pushed back further.
He argued that recurring system breakdowns place an avoidable burden on compliant filers and expose them to penalties for delays that originate within the tax authority’s own infrastructure rather than any lapse on the taxpayer’s part.
The LTBA chairman urged the department to identify what is driving the portal’s poor performance, expand server capacity, strengthen response infrastructure, and prepare the system for the sharp rise in traffic that ordinarily builds as the deadline approaches.
He added that the bar and its members are willing to assist FBR officials in mapping the specific technical bottlenecks reported by the filing community, while cautioning that a prompt remedy is essential if taxpayers are to be protected from unwarranted penalties, additional surcharges or the forfeiture of statutory rights arising from system-side failures.
Butt further asked the FBR to consider extending the filing deadline for Tax Year 2026 so that no genuine taxpayer is penalised for circumstances beyond their control.
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