Islamabad: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has dismissed claims circulating on social media that the Finance Act 2026 grants tax officials new powers to recover taxes directly from taxpayers’ bank accounts without their knowledge.
Senior FBR officials said the Finance Act 2026 introduced no amendments to the existing legal framework governing tax recovery from bank accounts. They clarified that such powers have been part of Pakistan’s tax laws for nearly 50 years and are not a new provision.
According to the officials, recovery from a taxpayer’s bank account is carried out only after a prescribed legal process. Under Section 137(2) of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, the FBR must first issue a demand notice, after which the taxpayer is given 30 days to respond.
Officials added that any recovery from bank accounts is governed by Section 140 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, and requires multiple procedural steps and high-level approvals within the FBR. They stressed that the process is neither automatic nor as straightforward as portrayed in social media posts.
The clarification comes after several social media posts and videos falsely claimed that the Finance Act 2026 had empowered the FBR to withdraw funds directly from taxpayers’ bank accounts without prior notice.
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