NTN Registration Fee in Pakistan (2026): What the FBR Charges vs What You Actually Pay

This surprises people every week: for an individual, registering for an NTN with the Federal Board of Revenue costs nothing. The IRIS portal is free, registration is free, and filing your own return is free. Any 'official' or 'government' NTN fee quoted to you for a simple individual registration is not official — it is someone's service charge wearing a costume.

So why do NTN quotes in the market range from Rs 2,500 to Rs 25,000? Because the fee you are quoted is really paying for three different things: the work of preparing your profile and (where relevant) your return, the accountability of someone who answers FBR if the profile trips a verification flag, and — in the worst cases — padding for services you never asked for. Understanding which is which is the whole game.

Two clarifications on that table. First, SECP's own online fees for a small private limited company are modest — roughly Rs 2,000–4,000 depending on filing mode and capital band — and the exact current figure is confirmed in writing before we file anything, because SECP revises its fee schedule periodically. Second, a company does not pay the FBR a separate NTN fee at all: the NTN is issued automatically as part of incorporation.

A fair NTN fee covers a defined bundle: your IRIS profile built correctly, income sources registered, contact verification completed, and — if you are also filing — the return and wealth statement prepared and submitted, with ATL follow-through until your name appears. When a quote is far above or below that band, one of three things is happening.

Below the band: you are probably paying for data entry only — no wealth statement, no verification follow-through, and nobody accountable when the profile needs biometric verification or the return bounces. Above the band: either your case genuinely has complications (missed years, business income, prior defaults, notices) or you are paying a middleman who will outsource the work anyway. The fix for both is the same: ask exactly what is included, and insist on a fixed written quote before work starts.

Directors often ask what a company's NTN costs. The answer: no FBR fee, because you do not apply for it separately — when SECP incorporates your private limited company, the NTN is generated automatically and the company enters the tax system. What you pay for is the incorporation itself: SECP's official fees plus the professional work of drafting the MEMO and AOA, reserving the name, and filing the incorporation documents.

The sensible way to compare company-formation quotes is all-in versus itemised: a fixed fee covering name reservation, incorporation, NTN, SECP statutory registers and your first compliance calendar is worth more than a low headline number that bills each step separately. Our company registration page shows the full engagement structure and typical timelines (two to five working days for incorporation once documents are ready).

STRN (sales tax registration) also carries no government fee, but it is a heavier engagement than NTN: the application needs business premises evidence, utility records, bank account details and jurisdiction specifics, and FBR scrutinises these more closely since the digital invoicing regime came in. That is why setup fees start around Rs 15,000 — the work, not the government, is what you are paying for. Monthly sales tax return filing runs from Rs 5,000 per return afterwards.

A word of caution: sales tax registration done carelessly creates problems that outlast the fee saved — wrong jurisdiction, missing business-profile fields, or an inactive STRN that blocks invoicing when a corporate customer demands a sales tax invoice. We have rescued enough of these to say it plainly: if you trade with registered businesses, get the registration done completely the first time.

Whatever route you take — us or anyone else — these five checks keep you honest-market: