Withholding tax in Pakistan: every live provision, and the ones that no longer exist

Withholding tax rates in Pakistan are not in the sections that impose them. The sections in Part V of Chapter X and in Chapter XII cross refer to a Division of Part III or Part IV of the First Schedule to the Income Tax Ordinance 2001, which is where the numbers live. This page maps every live provision as at the Finance Act 2026 and names the repealed ones, because a provision that no longer exists is the fastest way to date a stale rate table.

This page does something different and, we think, more durable. It maps the withholding and advance tax provisions that currently exist in the Income Tax Ordinance 2001, names the ones that have been repealed so you can recognise a stale table on sight, explains how to tell whether a deduction is final, minimum or adjustable, and sets out the uplift that applies when you are not on the Active Taxpayer List. Then it points you at the detailed guide for whichever provision affects you.

Why we are not publishing a rate table

The rates themselves are not in the sections. They are in Part III and Part IV of the First Schedule, and the sections simply cross refer to a Division of one of those Parts. That separation is deliberate, and it is why rates can be changed every year without touching the operative provisions.

It also creates the specific trap this site exists to avoid. FBR's consolidated Ordinance prints every superseded Division in its footnotes, formatted exactly like the live text. A rate copied from a footnote looks identical to a rate copied from the body. We have seen published tables that are internally inconsistent for precisely this reason, mixing live and superseded figures on the same page.

Deduction at source: the Part V provisions

These sit in Part V of Chapter X and apply when a payment is made. Section numbers and official headings as at the Finance Act 2026:

• Section 148 Imports
• Section 149 Salary, covered in tax on salary in Pakistan
• Section 150 Dividends
• Section 151 Profit on debt
• Section 151A Gain arising on disposal of certain debt securities
• Section 151B Certain payments by life insurance companies and takaful operators, inserted by the Finance Act 2026
• Section 152 Payments to non residents
• Section 153 Payments for goods, services and contracts
• Section 154 Exports
• Section 154A Export of Services, covered in the IT export tax guide
• Section 154B Withholding tax on revenues received from social media platforms, inserted by the Finance Act 2026
• Section 155 Rent of immoveable property, covered in the rental income guide
• Section 156 Prizes and winnings
• Section 156A Petroleum Products
• Section 158 Time of deduction of tax

Section 158 is the one people forget exists. It fixes when the obligation crystallises, which matters more than it sounds when a payment is accrued in one year and paid in the next.

Advance tax: the Chapter XII provisions

Chapter XII carries the transitional advance tax provisions, which are collected at the point of a transaction rather than on a payment for goods or services:

• Section 231AB Advance tax on cash withdrawal
• Section 231B Advance tax on motor vehicles
• Section 231C Advance tax on foreign domestic workers
• Section 233 Brokerage and commission
• Section 234 Tax on motor vehicles
• Section 235 Electricity consumption
• Section 236 Telephone and internet users
• Section 236A Advance tax at the time of sale by auction
• Section 236C Advance Tax on sale or transfer of immovable Property
• Section 236CB Advance tax on functions and gatherings
• Section 236G Advance tax on sales to distributors, dealers and wholesalers
• Section 236H Advance tax on sales to retailers
• Section 236K Advance tax on purchase or transfer of immovable property
• Section 236O Advance tax under this chapter
• Section 236Y Advance tax on persons remitting amounts abroad through credit or debit or prepaid cards
• Section 236Z Bonus shares issued by companies

Sections 236G and 236H are the two that most affect ordinary trading businesses, because they put the collection obligation on the supplier at the moment of a sale to a distributor, dealer, wholesaler or retailer. If your invoicing runs through a POS or an ERP, the collection has to be right on the document itself, which is part of what our FBR digital invoicing service handles.

Provisions that no longer exist

This is the section that will save you the most time, because recognising a dead provision is the fastest way to date a source. If a table you are reading contains any of the following, stop using it:

• Section 234A, CNG stations. Omitted by the Finance Act 2021. There is no CNG withholding provision.
• Section 236I, education fees. Omitted by the Finance Act 2022. There is no advance tax on education fees.
• Section 236D, functions and gatherings. Omitted by the Finance Act 2020. The live provision is section 236CB, inserted later. A table citing 236D for marriage halls is at least six years old.
• Section 236CA, TV plays and advertisements. Omitted by the Finance Act 2026, along with its rate Division in Part IV of the First Schedule. This one is new enough that a great deal of otherwise current content still carries it.
• Sections 231A and 231AA, cash withdrawal and banking instruments, omitted by the Finance Act 2021. The live cash withdrawal provision is section 231AB.
• Sections 233A and 233AA, stock exchange related, omitted by the Finance Act 2021.
• Section 235A, domestic electricity, omitted by the Finance Act 2021.

A long run of other provisions in the 236 series, including 236B, 236F, 236J, 236L, 236M, 236N, 236P, 236Q, 236R, 236S, 236U, 236V, 236W and 236X, was repealed between 2018 and 2022. The 236 series is the part of the Ordinance that changes fastest, so treat any 236 citation older than a year with suspicion.

Final, minimum, or adjustable

This distinction decides whether a deduction is the end of the matter or merely a payment on account, and there is no single schedule that classifies them. You have to look in three places.

Final tax is governed by section 169, headed "Tax collected or deducted as a final tax". Its clause (1)(a) was omitted by the Finance Act 2020, so the surviving gateway is clause (1)(b), which lists the final tax provisions exhaustively: section 152(1E), section 152A, section 154A(2), section 154B(3)(b) which was added by the Finance Act 2026, section 156(3), section 156A(2), and section 236Z(7). If a provision is not in that list, it is not final tax. Section 169(2) then sets out the consequences of finality: the income is not chargeable under any head, no deduction is allowed for expenditure, the amount is not reduced by any deductible allowance or loss set off, no tax credit is allowed, and no refund arises unless the tax collected exceeds the amount properly chargeable.

Minimum tax is stated inside individual sections rather than centrally, which is why it is so easy to miss. It appears in, among others, section 148(8) for certain importers, section 152(1BBB), the sections cross referred to in section 153(3), a proviso to section 154A, section 235 for persons other than a company, and section 236CB(3). Minimum tax means you compute your normal liability, compare it with the amount withheld, and pay the higher. It is a floor, not a settlement, and it is the classification most often mistaken for finality.

Adjustable is the default. Section 236O is the general adjustability provision for Chapter XII collections, individual sections say so expressly where it applies, and the credit mechanics run through section 168 and section 4(3). An adjustable deduction is simply a prepayment credited against your assessed liability when you file.

The uplift if you are not on the Active Taxpayer List

Whatever rate you arrive at, Rule 1 of the Tenth Schedule may multiply it. Where tax is required to be deducted or collected from a person not appearing on the Active Taxpayer List, the rate shall be increased by one hundred percent, that is, doubled, as the general rule. The provisos then set harsher treatment for specific transactions:

• Section 231B, motor vehicle registration: increased by two hundred percent.
• Section 236K, purchase of immovable property: a dedicated table at 10.5 percent up to fifty million rupees of fair market value, 14.5 percent between fifty and one hundred million, and 18.5 percent above one hundred million.
• Section 236C, sale of immovable property: 11.5 percent.
• Section 236G: 2 percent. Section 236H: 2.5 percent.

Rule 1A of the Tenth Schedule, which set intermediate rates for people on the list who had filed late, was omitted by the Finance Act 2026. There is no longer a late filer rate. The test is binary. See the Active Taxpayer List explained for how the list now works, including the move to daily updates.

Where to go next

For the provision that affects you, we have gone into depth separately: section 149 on salary, section 155 on rent, section 154A on service exports, section 154B on social media revenue, and the property transaction provisions in the section 7E guide. If a deduction has been taken from you at the wrong rate, the correction runs through your return, which is covered in the return deadline guide.

Last verified: 22 August 2026. Primary sources read directly for this page: the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 as consolidated by the Federal Board of Revenue and stated to be amended up to 30 June 2026, specifically the section numbers and official headings in Part V of Chapter X and in Chapter XII; section 169 including the omission of clause (1)(a) by the Finance Act 2020, the exhaustive final tax list in clause (1)(b) as amended by the Finance Act 2026, and the consequences in subsection (2); section 236O and section 168; and Rule 1 of the Tenth Schedule together with the footnote recording the omission of Rule 1A by the Finance Act 2026. The repeals listed above were each confirmed against the footnote recording them in the same consolidation. Rate figures other than those set out in the Tenth Schedule are deliberately not reproduced here and should be read from the live Divisions of Part III and Part IV of the First Schedule. General information, not tax advice. Confirm your own position with your tax consultant.