Lahore, September 8, 2025 – A storm is brewing in Pakistan’s tax landscape as the Lahore Tax Bar Association (LTBA) has raised the red flag over critical glitches in the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) online return filing system, IRIS. What should have been a smooth digital process for tax year 2025 has turned into a nightmare of technical breakdowns, erroneous computations, and widespread taxpayer frustration. In a strongly worded letter to the FBR chairman, LTBA President Muhammad Asif Rana detailed how persistent faults in the IRIS portal are crippling the filing process. According to the association, the ongoing issues are not minor bugs—they are systematic failures that could derail compliance, disrupt revenue collection, and shake public trust in the tax administration. Widespread Technical Failures The association has documented a series of alarming technical errors. Among the most glaring issues is the system’s inability to correctly allocate tax withheld under Section 235 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, particularly in the case of Associations of Persons (AOPs). Equally problematic is the discriminatory treatment of imports versus exports. While Section 148 allows taxpayers to edit income related to imports, no such option exists under Section 154 for exports. This inconsistency, the LTBA warned, is creating chaos in income attribution and reconciliation for businesses heavily reliant on cross-border trade. Even when taxpayers manage to fill in their data accurately, the system often throws back unexplained error messages during final submission. Without guidance on what went wrong, many taxpayers find themselves stuck in an endless cycle of trial and error. Perhaps the most damaging flaw is the system’s tendency to miscalculate final liabilities. By incorrectly adjusting advance tax or tax deducted at source, IRIS sometimes inflates tax demands, leaving honest taxpayers facing demands far higher than their actual liabilities. Legal Misapplications Causing Chaos The LTBA has also pointed out glaring legal misapplications within the system. For example, Section 92 of the Income Tax Ordinance exempts share income from an AOP in the hands…