FBR halts advance income tax notices for salaried individuals

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has instructed tax officials not to issue advance income tax notices to salaried individuals who earn exclusively through their jobs, according to sources.

The decision is intended to provide relief to salaried taxpayers who have been receiving quarterly notices requiring them to pay advance taxes.

Under the new directive, individuals whose sole source of income is their salary will not be issued such notices.

However, employees who earn additional income from other sources may still be liable to pay adjustable advance tax, depending on the applicable tax laws. Any advance tax collected from eligible taxpayers will be adjusted against their overall tax liability under the relevant legal provisions.

The move comes amid increasing concerns about the tax burden on salaried Pakistanis and demands for a fairer distribution of taxes across different income groups.

Meanwhile, former finance minister Asad Umar has criticised the country’s taxation policies, claiming that salaried individuals paid more than Rs600 billion in taxes last year, while landlords contributed less than Rs10 billion.

Umar also raised concerns over weak economic growth, rising inflation and increasing poverty. He argued that the government should have reduced the petroleum levy when international oil prices rose significantly, rather than increasing fuel-related taxes.

He further claimed that the petroleum levy on petrol had risen from Rs50 to Rs117 per litre, generating approximately Rs1.6 trillion in revenue during the previous year.

Umar alleged that tax contributions from salaried individuals far exceeded those from landlords, feudal families, industrialists and wealthy landowners across Pakistan’s four provinces, highlighting what he described as an imbalance in the country’s tax system.