The First Counsel

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Tax & Finance

Everything the firm has published on tax & finance — newest first.

BriefingLicensing Software to Foreign Customers from PakistanA Pakistani software business selling abroad answers to three regimes at once — exchange control at home, withholding tax abroad, and the contract that decides how both treat the money.12 July 2026 · 6 min read
BriefingPayroll Withholding: What Pakistani Employers Must DeductSection 149 makes the employer the tax collector for its own payroll — here is the full stack of deductions and contributions, and the short list of what may lawfully leave a pay packet.12 July 2026 · 7 min read
BriefingSales Tax on Services: Navigating the Provincial MazeFive statutes, five authorities, and no umpire: how sales tax on services is divided among Pakistan's provinces, and what a business selling across provincial lines should actually do.12 July 2026 · 6 min read
BriefingStartup Tax Treatment in Pakistan: What Exists and What Doesn'tThe statutory startup definition, the PSEB and IT-export regimes that do the real work, and the founder-friendly reliefs that Pakistani law does not in fact contain.12 July 2026 · 7 min read
BriefingThe Tax Registrations Every New Pakistani Company NeedsThe four tax registrations a newly incorporated company actually needs, which ones are triggered by what you do rather than what you are, and the order in which to get them.12 July 2026 · 6 min read
BriefingTax fraud vs. tax dispute: the line that decides whether you need us or an accountantA disputed assessment is a civil matter with an appeal route. Alleged fraud is a criminal case with arrest powers. What moves a file from one to the other.3 July 2026 · 5 min read
Client AlertFinance Act 2026: what boards need to knowThe Finance Act 2026 took effect on 1 July; this alert flags the items that belong on the next board agenda — rates, withholding duties, and the exposures that attach to directors personally.2 July 2026 · 3 min read
The First ReadingThe First Reading — No. 3The Finance Act 2026 is law, the new fiscal year resets the compliance calendar, and the half-year enforcement record shows where 2026-27 risk sits.1 July 2026 · 4 min read
BriefingThe Benami trap: how benami transaction proceedings begin, and how they endProperty held in another's name can be attached, adjudicated and confiscated under the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act 2017 — the stages of a benami case, the statutory exceptions that save ordinary family arrangements, and the exits at each stage.19 June 2026 · 6 min read
Client AlertExport SROs and rebate schemes: the current landscape for exportersThe Export Facilitation Scheme has absorbed the old duty-suspension regimes while the tax treatment of exporters has hardened — the paperwork now decides the economics.17 June 2026 · 3 min read
BriefingEmployee stock options under Pakistani law: making ESOPs actually workMost Pakistani ESOPs are US documents with the names changed — here is the corporate, tax and exchange-control work that turns an option plan into something an employee can enforce and an investor can diligence.12 June 2026 · 6 min read
Client AlertREIT regulations: an update for sponsors and investorsThe overhaul of the REIT Regulations lowered the entry bar for sponsors — the live questions now sit in the tax sunset dates, the lock-ins, and the discipline the structure imposes.6 May 2026 · 3 min read
Client AlertFBR's audit-selection policy: who gets picked, and what to doAudit selection is now driven by risk parameters, not the ballot drum — the taxpayers who reconcile their own data first fare best.18 April 2026 · 3 min read
BriefingSBP's foreign-exchange perimeter: repatriation, royalties, and the approvals that matterEvery cross-border payment out of Pakistan passes through a gate; this briefing maps which gates open on documentation, which need State Bank approval, and which stay shut.16 April 2026 · 5 min read
Client AlertSBP prudential update: corporate and SME financingThe State Bank's prudential regulations bind banks, but borrowers feel them in every term sheet: exposure limits, financial covenants and documentation standards all flow through into facility terms.18 February 2026 · 3 min read
Client AlertStamp duty digitization in Sindh: e-stamping in practiceSindh's e-stamping system now covers the instruments commercial parties actually sign — and the ad valorem duty on contracts makes the classification a pricing question, not a formality.5 February 2026 · 3 min read
Client AlertImport SROs: the current landscape for importersTariff reform is thinning the additional-duty and regulatory-duty stack — but every concession that survives still turns on its conditions.20 January 2026 · 3 min read
Client AlertStamp duty digitization in Punjab: e-stamping in practicePunjab has retired the stamp vendor — the e-stamp certificate is now how an instrument gets stamped, and how a counterparty or a court checks it.20 January 2026 · 3 min read

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