Overview
- FBR, which published draft SROs on Thursday, opened a seven-day window for objections to special rules on taxing income from remunerative social media content.
- The drafts cover non-residents and residents in separate notices, SRO.545(I)/2026 and SRO.546(I)/2026, and require quarterly advance tax with separate reporting in returns.
- Creators enter the regime when interaction with users in Pakistan exceeds 50,000 in a tax year or 12,250 in a quarter, which the rules say establishes a taxable presence.
- Taxable income would be the higher of a formula using a Rs195 per 1,000 YouTube views benchmark or actual earnings, with deductible expenses capped at 30 percent.
- Press analyses warn that verifying Pakistan-sourced views may require platform cooperation and estimate effective burdens from the Rs195 rate could range from about 16% to 66%.