Filing your tax return on IRIS: A step-by-step guide for the salaried individual

Most of us feel a small knot in the stomach when someone mentions a “tax return”. We picture stacks of paper, a consultant’s fee, and a long queue at a tax office. The good news is that none of that is needed any more. If you are a salaried person, you can file your return yourself, from home, on the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) online portal, IRIS. It is free and with your papers in hand it usually takes under an hour. This guide walks you through it, one click at a time. For Tax Year 2026, the last date to file is Oct 31. Why should I bother filing at all? Think of your tax return as the yearly hisaab (account) you settle at your neighbourhood shop. All year, your employer has been paying tax on your behalf every month, just like items going onto a shop’s khata (record). The return is the day you sit down with the shopkeeper, match the totals and sign off.

If the shop owes you, you get it back. If you owe a little, you clear it. Either way, the book is closed and you walk away with a clean slate. Once your hisaab is settled, your name goes onto the FBR’s “Active Taxpayers List” (ATL). That is what people mean when they say someone is a “filer”. Being a filer matters in everyday life. Non-filers pay noticeably higher tax on things like bank transactions, buying a car or property, and other big-ticket dealings. And being late has become expensive. From this year, an individual who misses the deadline must pay a surcharge of Rs 25,000 to get back onto the ATL. Until last year it was Rs 1,000. Do I need to file? You should file if any of these apply to you for the year July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026: Your salary was more than Rs600,000 for the year (Rs50,000 a month). You own a car with an engine capacity above 1,000cc, or own a plot or house of 500 square yards or…