ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has extended the deadline for filing income tax returns for Tax Year 2025-26 by two weeks to Oct. 15, the country’s tax authority said on Wednesday, hours before it was due to expire.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had set previously set a deadline of Sept. 30 for Pakistani citizens to file their statements of wealth and assets.

The tax regulator said the deadline had been extended in view of “requests from various trade bodies and tax bar associations.”

“The Federal Board of Revenue is pleased to communicate that the date of filing of Income Tax Return for Tax Year 2026, for the persons who are required to file their returns by September 30th, 2026 is hereby extended up to October 15th, 2026,” the FBR said in a notification.

Sept. 30 is the statutory deadline for filing tax returns 30 each year, however, Pakistan has often extended it till the end of October each year.

By Wednesday noon, around 5.5 million people had filed their tax returns, an FBR official told Arab News. Around 3.553 million Pakistanis filed their tax returns in the previous year, Pakistani media reported, citing the revenue watchdog.

The South Asian country has one of the lowest tax-to-GDP ratios in the region, despite a population of more than 240 million, and has often failed to meet its collection targets.

The government has set a tax revenue target of Rs15.26 trillion ($54.8 billion), up 8.2 percent from the ​previous fiscal year that ended in June.