Every rupee paid in advance for future supplies will now carry a mandatory digital paper trail under freshly minted federal tax directives.
Business Recorder reported that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued SRO 2063(I)/2026 to amend the Sales Tax Rules, 2006, introducing a binding mechanism for advance receipt invoices. Under the newly prescribed procedure, sales tax-registered persons and entities falling under section 23 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990 must generate an advance receipt invoice at the exact time of receiving any advance payment, whether full, partial, or split into multiple instalments.
Background
According to the Business Recorder report, the updated rules mandate that these advance receipt invoices must incorporate the specific particulars outlined in section 23 of the Sales Tax Act. Taxpayers are required to officially declare and account for the corresponding output tax in their returns for the specific tax period in which the advance is collected. Furthermore, the regulatory framework stipulates that such documents will function as formal tax invoices under sections 7 and 8 of the Act.
The FBR guidelines specify that if multiple advance payments are received against a single supply, a distinct invoice must be generated for each individual transaction. To maintain an unbroken audit trail, every subsequent advance receipt invoice must be electronically linked to the preceding documents associated with that supply.