FBR Digital Invoicing for Furniture & Home Furnishing Shops (2026)
Furniture and home furnishing shops in Pakistan: how FBR digital invoicing works, the 18% rate, further tax, and why big items cannot use 5%.
Do furniture shops need FBR digital invoicing?
Short answer: yes, if your shop is sales tax registered. Sofas, beds, dining tables, wardrobes, office chairs, mattresses, curtains and other home furnishing items 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 — furniture has one detail that trips up big showrooms: the cheaper 5% rate cannot be used on expensive items.
Furniture is standard-rate goods (18%)
Most furniture and home furnishing is taxed at the standard rate — 18% at the time of writing (always confirm today's rate with your adviser). In FBR's test list this is scenario SN001 when you sell to a registered buyer, SN002 for an unregistered buyer, and SN026 when a registered retailer sells straight to a walk-in customer.
Here is the detail that matters for showrooms: the reduced 5% rate is not allowed once a single item's value goes above Rs 20,000 (FBR error 0079). A sofa set, a double bed or an office table almost always crosses that line, so those items use the normal rate, not 5%. Trying to bill a costly item at 5% will get the invoice rejected.
If some of your stock carries a printed retail price on the box (for example certain branded mattresses or ready-made furnishing packs), check whether it falls under the Third Schedule, where tax is worked out on the printed price instead of your selling price. Our guides 'How Sales Tax Is Calculated on an FBR Digital Invoice' and 'Third Schedule Goods and Printed Retail Price' explain both cases with examples.
Registered vs unregistered buyers and further tax
Who your buyer is changes the bill. When you sell to an unregistered buyer, an extra charge called further tax is usually added on top of the normal sales 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.
For an office, hotel or builder buying in bulk who is sales tax registered, take their registration number so you bill them as a registered buyer (SN001). They can then claim the tax back, which is why business buyers ask for a proper FBR invoice.
Every furniture sale — one chair or a full house set — needs its own posted invoice with an IRN and QR code. There is no separate simple bill for big orders; the same digital invoice covers small and large.
Made-to-order furniture, delivery and assembly
Made-to-order furniture is still goods. When a customer orders a custom wardrobe or a bed built to size, you are selling a finished product, so it is billed as goods at the standard rate — the same as a ready-made piece off the floor.
There is one line to watch. If you only supply labour — for example a carpenter fixes or polishes furniture the customer already owns, and no goods change hands — that is a service, and services are usually taxed by the provincial authority (SRB in Sindh, PRA in Punjab, KPRA, BRA), not by FBR. In Islamabad, services are federal. Our guide 'Goods vs Services in FBR Digital Invoicing' draws the line clearly.
Delivery and assembly charges on a furniture sale normally go on the same invoice as the goods. Returns happen too — a damaged piece, a swap. You do not delete a posted bill; FBR keeps every one. You raise a credit note to reduce the original or a debit note to add to it. Our guide 'Debit Notes and Credit Notes in FBR Digital Invoicing' walks through it.
Make billing fast with Digi Invoice
A furniture showroom carries many models, sizes and finishes. Save your full product list once — each item with its price and 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, blocks the 5% rate on items over Rs 20,000 so the invoice does not bounce, adds further tax for unregistered buyers, 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 furniture invoice the same day — with the rate and further-tax rules handled for you.
Difficult words in this guide
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.
Further tax — an extra charge added when you sell goods to an unregistered buyer, on top of the normal tax.
Standard rate — the normal sales tax rate (18% at the time of writing) charged on ordinary goods like furniture.
Third Schedule — a list of goods where sales tax is charged on the printed retail price, not your selling price; check whether any of your branded stock falls in it.
HS code (Harmonised System code) — an international product number FBR uses to name each item, like a bed, sofa or table.