FBR’s Rs195 per 1,000 views formula draws cr...

Summary

• ISLAMABAD:  Pakistan’s Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has introduced a benchmark of Rs195 for every 1,000 YouTube views for determining taxable income of social media creators, triggering concerns among content creators and tax practitioners over whether the formula accurately reflects their actual earnings.
• The rules reportedly allow creators to claim expenses up to 30 percent of gross revenue, while the remaining amount is treated as taxable income.
• The policy is intended to formalise Pakistan’s growing digital economy, but concerns remain that an inflexible benchmark could place additional pressure on smaller creators and encourage some participants to remain outside the formal tax system.

AI Generated Summary

ISLAMABAD:  Pakistan’s Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has introduced a benchmark of Rs195 for every 1,000 YouTube views for determining taxable income of social media creators, triggering concerns among content creators and tax practitioners over whether the formula accurately reflects their actual earnings.

The procedure, notified on September 23, 2026, is aimed at bringing Pakistan’s rapidly expanding digital creator economy into the formal tax system. However, data reviewed by Minute Mirror suggests that the benchmark may sometimes exceed the revenue actually generated by creators.

Revenue gap highlighted by YouTube data

According to verified analytics from a Pakistani finance channel, the platform recorded 846,100 views during a 28-day period and generated approximately $317.09 in YouTube revenue, equivalent to around Rs89,000.

Under the FBR’s benchmark, however, the same number of views would translate into approximately Rs165,000 in assumed revenue. This creates a difference of about Rs76,000 between the actual revenue reported by YouTube and the benchmark amount.