PennyCompass

Pakistan Capital Gains Tax Calculator

Capital gains tax on listed securities and mutual funds acquired after 1 July 2024, with a filer and non-filer toggle.

Published

Capital gains tax on shares and mutual funds, flat 15% for filers.

Capital gains tax

Total gain

Net after tax

Your breakdown

Updates live as you type
StepAmount

The 1 July 2024 line that resets the rules

Pakistan changed how it taxes gains on listed shares and mutual fund units around the 2024 Finance Act, and the acquisition date now matters more than almost anything else. For securities you bought on or after 1 July 2024, this calculator applies a flat rate to the gain regardless of how long you held them. That is a meaningful break from the older system, where the tax rate stepped down the longer you stayed invested. The flat treatment is the rate this calculator applies for the post-July-2024 regime, and because the Federal Board of Revenue revises capital gains figures through each annual Finance Act, you should confirm the current rate and the exact cut-off with the FBR before filing.

Filers and non-filers do not pay the same

Pakistan runs a filer versus non-filer system, and the gap shows up here too. A person on the Active Taxpayer List, an ATL filer, is charged a flat 15% on the gain as modelled in this tool. A non-filer is instead taxed at the normal slab rate that applies to the rest of their income, subject to a floor and rising toward the top slab of roughly 35%. Because this calculator has no income field to drive those slabs, it simplifies the non-filer case down to the same 15% floor. In reality a high-income non-filer could owe considerably more than 15%, so treat the non-filer figure here as a minimum and verify your actual slab position with the FBR. The lesson the numbers teach is blunt: staying on the ATL is the cheapest tax decision most investors can make.

A filer selling 1,000 units bought at PKR 100

Use the default scenario. You are a filer. You bought 1,000 units at PKR 100 each and sold them at PKR 140 each. The gain is PKR 40 per unit, PKR 40,000 in total, and the tax is the flat 15% the calculator applies to filers.

The bar on the left is your full gain. The tax slice is the thin teal band; the grey is what you keep.

A loss owes nothing, and that is worth using

If you sell below your cost, there is no capital gain and no tax; the calculator simply shows the loss and no charge. That is more than a relief, it is a planning tool. Pakistani tax rules generally let capital losses on securities be set off against capital gains within the same category, so a position sitting underwater can offset a winner you are about to book. Many investors miss this because they refuse to sell at a loss on principle. The smarter move late in the tax year is to look at your gains and losses together rather than one trade at a time, and confirm the current set-off and carry-forward rules with the FBR since these too can shift year to year.

What this tool deliberately leaves out

Two things to keep in mind. First, this calculator models the post-1-July-2024 flat regime, so it does not handle older lots whose tax still depends on the holding period; if you are sitting on shares bought years ago, those follow a different schedule and you should check them separately. Second, it works on a single buy price and a single sell price, so it does not weight an averaged cost across multiple purchase dates. If you accumulated the same scrip over many tranches, compute your weighted average cost first and feed that in as the buy price. The result is the tax on the gain itself; it does not net off brokerage, the CDC charges, or any sell-side withholding your broker may collect.

Does the broker deduct this tax for me automatically?

Largely yes. For listed securities, the National Clearing Company collects capital gains tax at source and reports it, which is why the rate for filers is applied so cleanly. You still declare the gain in your annual return, where the collected amount is adjusted against your final liability. Mutual fund redemptions work similarly, with the asset management company handling the deduction.

Are dividends taxed the same way as these gains?

No, they are separate. A capital gain is the profit when you sell a unit for more than you paid. A dividend is income the company or fund pays you while you still hold it, and it is taxed under its own withholding rate. If you are weighing the total tax on a holding, you need to look at both the gain on exit and the dividend tax along the way.

Frequently asked questions

How much capital gains tax do you pay on shares in Pakistan?
For listed securities and mutual fund units acquired on or after 1 July 2024, a filer on the Active Taxpayer List pays a flat 15% on the gain. A non-filer is taxed at the normal slab rate that applies to their income, subject to a 15% floor and rising up to the top slab of about 35%. A capital loss attracts no tax.
What is the difference between filer and non-filer status for capital gains in Pakistan?
A filer is a person whose name appears on the Active Taxpayer List maintained by the Federal Board of Revenue. Filers pay the flat 15% capital gains rate on listed securities. A non-filer is taxed at the regular income slab rate applicable to their total income, with a minimum floor of 15%. The gap between the two rates can be substantial for high-income investors, so registering on the ATL before booking large gains is one of the most effective steps a Pakistani investor can take.
Can capital losses on shares be used to reduce capital gains tax in Pakistan?
Yes. Under Pakistani tax rules, capital losses on securities within the same category can generally be set off against capital gains of the same type in the same tax year. If losses exceed gains in a given year, the rules allow carry-forward to future years subject to conditions the FBR sets out in the Income Tax Ordinance. You should confirm the current set-off and carry-forward limits each year because Finance Act changes can alter these rules.
Does the 1 July 2024 acquisition date apply to all securities in Pakistan?
The flat 15% rate modelled in this calculator applies specifically to listed shares and mutual fund units acquired on or after 1 July 2024. Securities bought before that date follow the older holding-period-based schedule, where the rate steps down the longer you held the asset. If you hold a mix of pre-2024 and post-2024 lots in the same scrip, you need to calculate gains on each tranche separately using the rules that apply to its acquisition date.

Related calculators

Sources

  1. FBR — Income Tax Rates for Salaried Individuals, Federal Board of Revenue, Pakistan
Embed this calculator on your site (free)

Paste this code into your page. The calculator stays up to date automatically and links back to PennyCompass.

Calculator by PennyCompass