No More Direct Audits: How the New 'Faceless' FBR System Will Impact Taxpayers

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has announced major reforms for the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the country’s tax collection body, in the newly presented budget, ARY News reported.

To eliminate discretionary powers within the FBR, the Finance Minister announced the establishment of a National Faceless Tax Center.

Under this centralized system, direct contact between taxpayers and tax officers during audits and assessments will be completely removed.

The identities of both the taxpayer and the tax officer will be kept hidden using single-blind and double-blind masking protocols.

As part of these reforms, tax officers will no longer have the authority to manually select cases or target specific taxpayers.

Instead, an automated system will allocate cases based on automated risk scores. If a discrepancy is detected, the system will automatically generate and issue a settlement offer.

The audit or case file will then be closed once the taxpayer clears the required amount.

Additionally, the government has already begun compiling comprehensive risk profiles for taxpayers by centralizing data on property ownership, vehicle registrations, banking transactions, and utility records.