The rollout of the redesigned IRIS 2.0 portal for Tax Year 2026 has introduced difficulties that go well beyond the usual friction taxpayers expect. As a practicing Advocate handling income tax matters for individuals, AOPs, and corporate clients, I want to put on record, plainly and constructively, what is actually happening on the ground.
This year, taxpayers must now affirmatively select their sources of income before the return will even generate. A reasonable idea in theory, but it was rolled out with no prior consultation with tax bars or the professionals who file thousands of returns every season. A change this significant should never reach production without input from the people who actually use the system.
The practical problems compound from there:
No return preview. Only a download option exists, making verification before submission nearly impossible.
Data mismatches. Auto-fetched figures contradict the taxpayer's own MIS reports and other FBR data, with inconsistent values across heads of income.
No ability to correct wrong data. When the system pulls incorrect figures, there is no edit or delete option.
Minimum tax tab limitations. The system cannot handle two business turnovers falling under different minimum tax rates (1.25% and 0.25%) in the same return.
Withholding sections not reporting correctly. Sections 151, 150, 153, and 233 don't reconcile with FBR's own data.
Truncated figures. Amounts over Rs. 100 million are cut off on screen.
Wrong auto-calculations. Bad input data produces compounding errors in the system's own computations.
It bears stating clearly: testing a taxpayer-facing government system is not the taxpayer's job. FBR, as a state department administering a mandatory compliance obligation, has a duty to test rigorously at the ground level, with real practitioners and real data, before rollout, not after.
None of this is minor. Every glitch and unresolved call erodes the voluntary compliance culture the tax system depends on. Taxpayers who want to comply correctly are instead spending hours fighting a system that won't let them.
The fix is straightforward: pause, consult the tax bars and practicing professionals who interact with this system daily, fix the identified defects, and only then push further structural changes. A tested, transparent system, genuinely built for its users, is the real foundation for voluntary tax compliance, not a rushed rollout taxpayers are left to debug in real time.
I would welcome hearing from other practitioners and taxpayers facing similar issues this filing season. The more documented, the stronger the case for FBR to act.
Muhammad Rehan Sarwar
Advocate High Court
The Nomologists Law Firm
#FBR #IRIS2 #TaxYear2026 #TaxCompliance