ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has extended the deadline for filing income tax returns to October 31.

An official announcement on Thursday said all taxpayers can now file their returns for tax year 2026 by the extended deadline. The deadline, originally set for Sept 30, was first extended by two weeks to Oct 15.

Meanwhile, the FBR received 943,000 new tax returns during the first extension of the filing deadline by Oct 15.

Total returns filed through Oct 14 reached 6.710 million, compared with 4.993m returns filed over the corresponding period lastyear, anincrease of34.38pc.

Until Sept 30, total returns received were 5.767m, up from 3.980m last year, an increase of 45pc.

As a result, total tax paid on returns up to Oct 14 stood at Rs66.81 billion, about 14.61pc above last year`s Rs58.29bn.

Non-salaried filers led the 2026 tax year. Returns filed by non-salaried individuals, a category that covers traders, shopkeepers, professionals, and the selfemployed, rose 46.35pc, from 3.038m to 4.446m. This marks a significant shift in the filing of tax returns.

Salaried returns rose by 16.16pc to 2.178 m in tax year 2026 from 1.875m the previous year. Returns from associations of persons, including partnerships, rose 14.64pc to 74,278 in tax year 2026, up from 64,789 in the previous tax year.

The one category that has moved in the other direction is companies. Only 11,089 company returns have been filed so far, down from 14,292 by this date last year, a decline of22.41pc.

FBR officials describe this decline in corporate returns filings as a matter of timing. Many companies, they say, held back in the expectation that the filing date would be extended further. However, a surge was recorded in tax payments with returns.

The FBR attributes the overall rise in tax return filings to three factors. First, data from banks, property registries, vehicle registration records, and withholding statements are now matched against tax returns to identify people with taxable capacity who have not filed.

The second is a simpler return that enables most salaried individuals and small businesses to file without professional assistance. The third is enforcement: those who fail to file now face restrictions on major economic transactions.