FBR Digital Invoicing for Footwear & Shoe Shops (2026)

Short answer: yes, if your shop is sales tax registered. The shoes, sandals, joggers, school shoes, slippers and other footwear you sell are goods, so they must be billed through FBR's Digital Invoicing system (the real-time billing system, meaning FBR checks and saves each bill the moment you make it).

The rules come from SRO 1852(I)/2025, the notification FBR issued on 24 September 2025 that sets who must join and by when. Under it, the last group of registered businesses had to be in by 31 December 2025. Miss your date and the penalty starts at Rs 1 million. Every bill you post gets an IRN (Invoice Reference Number — the unique number FBR gives each invoice) and a QR code (the square barcode a buyer can scan to check the bill is real).

A very small shop below the sales tax limit is not in the system yet. It joins once it registers, or once FBR notifies its group. If you are already registered, read on — footwear has one recent change that makes it different from most shops: many shoes are now taxed on the price printed on the box, not on the price you sell them for.

Through the Finance Act 2026, footwear was added to the Third Schedule (Serial 65) — the list of goods where sales tax is worked out on the printed retail price (the MRP, or Maximum Retail Price, printed on the box), not on the price at which you actually sell the item. This covers footwear of all types.

In plain words: if a box of shoes has a printed price of Rs 5,000, the sales tax is calculated on that Rs 5,000 even if you sell it at a discount for Rs 4,500. The printed price is the tax base. This is a change many shoe shops have not caught up with, so it is worth getting right.

There is one carve-out: the change mainly targets the manufacturer/importer level, and there is relief for makers who sell only through FBR digitally integrated, POS-compliant outlets. For a normal retail shoe shop, the practical rule is simple — check whether the shoes carry a printed retail price, and if they do, tax is on that price. Our guide 'Third Schedule Goods and Printed Retail Price' explains the whole idea with examples.

For Third Schedule footwear, the invoice is filled a little differently from ordinary goods. You put the printed retail price in the retail-price field and set the normal sale-value field to zero, and the tax — 18% at the time of writing (always confirm today's rate with your adviser) — is worked out on that printed price. In FBR's test list this is scenario SN008, and SN027 when a registered retailer sells straight to an end consumer.

Get the sum right: for Third Schedule goods the tax must equal the printed price times the rate. If the figure does not match, FBR rejects the bill (error 0102). And if you leave the printed-price field empty on a Third Schedule item, FBR rejects it too (error 0090). Our guide 'How Sales Tax Is Calculated on an FBR Digital Invoice' shows every figure FBR checks.

Plain, unbranded shoes with no printed price are treated as ordinary standard-rate goods instead — scenario SN001 for a registered buyer, SN002 for an unregistered buyer, SN026 over the counter. So one shop can have some lines on the printed price and some on the sale price. Digi Invoice keeps each product set up the right way so you do not have to remember per sale.

If you import footwear, the Third Schedule sets a floor on the printed price: for imported Third Schedule goods, the retail price must be at least 130% of the value assessed by customs (including customs duty and any federal excise). So you cannot print an unrealistically low MRP on imported stock to shrink the tax.

When you sell to an unregistered buyer, an extra charge called further tax is usually added on top of the normal tax. The exact figure changes over time, so confirm the current one with your adviser. Our guide 'Registered vs Unregistered Buyers on FBR Invoices' shows both sides so you enter the right amount.

Returns and exchanges are common in shoe shops — wrong size, a swap. You do not delete a posted bill; FBR keeps every one. You raise a credit note against the original to reduce it, or a debit note to add to it. Our guide 'Debit Notes and Credit Notes in FBR Digital Invoicing' walks through it.

A shoe shop bills many styles, sizes and colours. Save your full product list once — each style with its printed price (for Third Schedule items) or sale price, plus its HS code (Harmonised System code — an international product number FBR uses to name each item) — and bill in a few taps. You can also import many bills together; our guide 'FBR Digital Invoicing Bulk Upload' shows how.

Digi Invoice puts the right amount in the correct box, works out the tax on the printed price where the Third Schedule applies, and posts the bill to FBR for you. You get the IRN, the QR code and a clean printable invoice back in seconds.

Ready to start? Create a free account and post your first FBR-compliant footwear invoice the same day — with the printed-price rule handled for you so the bill does not bounce.

IRN (Invoice Reference Number) — the unique number FBR gives your bill after you post it. No IRN means the bill is not valid for FBR.

QR code — the square barcode printed on the bill; anyone can scan it to check the invoice is real.

Third Schedule — a list of goods (now including footwear) where sales tax is charged on the printed retail price, not your selling price.

MRP (Maximum Retail Price) — the price printed on the box; for Third Schedule goods this is the base FBR uses to work out the tax.

Further tax — an extra charge added when you sell goods to an unregistered buyer, on top of the normal tax.

HS code (Harmonised System code) — an international product number FBR uses to name each item, like a shoe style or type.