FBR launches 'faceless' tax audit centre to end face-to-face contact between officials and taxpayers

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has set up a National Faceless Centre in Islamabad that will handle tax audits and assessments without any face-to-face contact between tax officials and taxpayers, a change the board says will reduce officers’ discretion and the opportunities for corruption.

The decision was taken on Friday by the Board in Council, the FBR’s top decision-making body chaired by its chairperson. The FBR described the centre as a major reform that “changes how tax audits and assessments are carried out in Pakistan”.

How the system worked until now

Until now, a taxpayer whose return was selected for audit would typically deal with a specific officer in a specific office, often in person. Critics have long argued that this personal contact gave individual officials too much discretion and created room for harassment and bribery.

How it will work now

Under the new model, that contact ends. According to the FBR:

• Selection by computer: Cases will be picked by an automated, risk-based system rather than by an officer.
• Anonymous assignment: Each case will be automatically assigned to an officer who could be located anywhere in Pakistan. The taxpayer will not know who the officer is, and the officer will have no say in which cases they receive.
• Three sets of hands: The work is split between three different officials: the first audits the return, the second decides the assessment and the third checks the quality of both before anything is finalised, so no one person handles a case from beginning to end.
• Fully electronic: All notices, replies and hearings will take place online through the FBR’s IRIS system.
• Separate field team: Where the law requires physical verification or recovery, it will be handled by a separate field team.

Legal basis and structure

The centre draws its legal authority from the Finance Act, 2026, and forms part of Pakistan’s New Tax Operating Model, which the government approved in principle in June.

A chief commissioner from Inland Revenue will lead the centre, which is split into four specialised wings: one each for audits, assessments, quality checks and on-the-ground field work. The FBR has already created a dedicated unit to manage the rollout.

Modelled on international practice

The FBR said the centralised, faceless approach is similar to systems used in the United Kingdom, Australia, the Netherlands, Singapore and India. The core idea in each is the same: by removing personal contact and spreading decisions across several officials, tax administration becomes more consistent and less open to abuse.

In its statement, the FBR said the aim was “same rules for every taxpayer, decisions based on data rather than personal judgement, and an end to the face to face contact that has long been a source of complaints”. It expects the centre to make tax proceedings faster, fairer and more transparent.

What it means for taxpayers

For businesses and individuals, the most immediate change will be practical: audit correspondence and hearings will move entirely online, and taxpayers will no longer be able to identify, or be approached by, the officer handling their case. That should reduce the scope for informal pressure on both sides, but it also means taxpayers will need to be comfortable using the IRIS system and responding to notices on time.

The success of the reform will depend on the quality of the risk-based selection system and on whether the three-stage process speeds cases up rather than slowing them down. Businesses and tax practitioners will be watching closely as the first audits move through the new centre.

Why it matters

Pakistan’s tax-to-GDP ratio is among the lowest in the region, and trust between taxpayers and the tax authority has long been weak. Reforms that make audits more predictable and less personal are seen as essential both to widening the tax net and to meeting commitments to international lenders, especially while inflation and a widening Gulf trade gap put pressure on the economy.

Reporting draws on an FBR statement, as reported by Dawn.