A surprising number of clients come to us thinking they must be logged into IRIS to verify an NTN is active – they don’t have to be. FBR has its own public tool for this purpose that is easily overlooked under a menu labeled “Verification.”
To find a company NTN by name, try our NTN directory, or check ATL status with the ATL verification tool.
Verifying Your NTN – No Login Necessary
On the upper bar of the IRIS 2.0 home page (iris.fbr.gov.pk), you’ll see a link labeled “Verifications” just to the right of e-Payments, Tax Asaan, and FBR Maloomat. Clicking it opens a panel labeled “Online Verifications” with a lengthy list on the left of options, including Active Taxpayer List (Income Tax), Active Taxpayer List (AJK), Active Taxpayer List (Sales Tax), Taxpayer Profile Inquiry, Exemption Certificate, Notices/Orders Verification, and several others. For verifying an NTN, you want either “Active Taxpayer List (Income Tax)” or “Taxpayer Profile Inquiry” – the latter is often overlooked, as the label doesn’t explicitly say “verify NTN.”
Free tool: Need to check a whole list? Upload it to our free Bulk ATL Check and download the results as an Excel file.
To use either of the two NTN verification tools listed above:
- Choose a Parameter Type from the dropdown – this is usually CNIC if you’re an individual, or NTN/Registration No. if you’re a business
- Enter the relevant number in the Registration No. field
- Enter the numeric Captcha that appears in the little image to the right (click the refresh icon next to it if you can’t see the numbers clearly – this happens too often)
- Click VERIFY
If successful, it will show the registered name with that NTN and their status against that number – if “no record found” appears, double-check that you didn’t include dashes in the CNIC, and that the person/business is actually registered (this tool can’t verify a nonexistent NTN).
Getting a Copy of Your Registration Certificate
While the public verification tool described above is useful, it only tells you whether an NTN is active – it won’t give you a printable copy of the certificate itself. To do this, you need to use an account (see our IRIS login guide if you don’t already have one handy). In the Registration tab, you can get a PDF copy of your registration certificate, which includes your NTN, name, and jurisdiction – this is usually required by banks and embassies, rather than a screenshot of the “active taxpayer” verification results.
Active Taxpayer List (ATL) Is Not the Same Thing as Being Registered
One of the most common misunderstandings we hear about is that someone has an NTN, but they’re no longer on the current Active Taxpayer List (ATL) – this usually happens when a taxpayer misses filing for a year, and can result in higher withholding tax on their bank transfers, property purchases, and vehicle registration until they’re back on the list. The “Active Taxpayer List (Income Tax)” tool described above will tell you which bracket you fall into. If you’re no longer on the list, filing the missed return (with applicable surcharge) is the only way to get back on it – usually within a few working days of the FBR processing it. Our Income Tax Return Filing Services team deals with this kind of situation for clients who accidentally fell off the list.
If You Were Never Registered to Begin With
Any of the verification steps described above won’t work if you were never registered in the first place. If this is the case, we recommend using our NTN Registration Services in Pakistan – we can register you for the first time, and set up your IRIS access so that you can verify and download your own certificate at a later date.
While these mix-ups between certificate verification and actual registration are relatively minor issues on their own, they often point to a larger problem of a taxpayer falling significantly behind on filings. If you want us to simply check your status, feel free to give us a call.
If you need to change an activity or any details about your business, see our FBR business profile modification service.
