President UNISAME, Zulfikar Thaver, said that the Association has been receiving a continuous stream of complaints and calls from member businesses and tax consultants who have been struggling for several days with login failures, slow loading times, and intermittent outages on the portal, despite the approaching filing deadline for Tax Year 2026.
“Our members, particularly small and medium enterprises who rely on their tax practitioners to file returns within tight timelines, are being penalized for a failure that is entirely outside their control,” Mr. Thaver said. “It is deeply unfair to hold taxpayers accountable to a deadline when the very system meant to facilitate compliance is not functioning.”
UNISAME acknowledged that FBR has publicly admitted the intermittent problems on IRIS and stated that its technical teams are working to resolve the issue. UNISAME welcomes this acknowledgment but urges FBR to treat the matter with urgency, given that the filing deadline is now imminent.
UNISAME makes the following demands to FBR:
Restore the IRIS portal fully and urgently. FBR must upgrade server capacity and strengthen its IT infrastructure to withstand the surge in traffic that predictably occurs as filing deadlines approach, so that this recurring problem does not repeat every filing season.
Grant a reasonable extension in the filing deadline. Given the days already lost to portal downtime, taxpayers — whether filing through tax practitioners or independently — must be given sufficient additional time to complete their Sales Tax and Income Tax returns without the threat of penalties or loss of Active Taxpayer status.
Communicate transparently and promptly. FBR should keep taxpayers regularly informed of the portal’s status and expected restoration timelines through its official channels, rather than requiring the public to rely on rumor and anecdote.
UNISAME reiterates its commitment to supporting the ease of doing business in Pakistan and to working constructively with FBR to strengthen the country’s digital tax infrastructure. However, the Association stresses that taxpayers cannot be made to bear the cost of infrastructure failures that are the responsibility of the tax authority.
UNISAME calls upon FBR’s senior leadership to take immediate notice of this matter and to announce a deadline extension without further delay, to restore the confidence of the business community in the tax filing system.