Riding for a living through Careem, Bykea, inDrive, or delivering for Foodpanda has become one of the most common ways young people in Pakistan earn income today — but because it doesn't come with a salary slip or an employer, many riders assume it's simply outside FBR's radar. It isn't, and understanding how it's actually classified helps you avoid problems later.
How Rider Income Is Classified
Unlike a salaried job, gig/ride-hailing platforms don't withhold tax on your behalf the way an employer does. Your earnings are treated as income from a business or profession — you're effectively a self-employed individual using the app as your client-acquisition channel. This means you follow the business individual tax slabs, not the salaried slabs, and you're responsible for declaring the income yourself.
What You Can Deduct
Because this is business income, genuine expenses incurred to earn it are deductible before tax is calculated on the remainder:
- Fuel and CNG/petrol costs
- Vehicle maintenance and repairs directly tied to work use
- Mobile data/internet used for the app
- A reasonable portion of vehicle depreciation, if you can support it with purchase records
Keeping even simple records — fuel receipts, a monthly earnings screenshot from the app — makes this much easier at filing time.
When Do You Need to Register?
If your net income (earnings minus deductible expenses) for the tax year stays under the Rs. 600,000 exempt threshold, you may owe little to no tax — but registering is still worth doing if you plan to open/upgrade a bank account, apply for a vehicle loan, or simply want to avoid non-filer withholding rates on things like cash withdrawals and vehicle registration down the line.
Multiple Apps, One Return
Many riders work across more than one platform — Careem in the morning, Bykea and Foodpanda in the evening. All of this gets combined into a single annual return as one business income figure; you don't file separately per app.
Filing Steps
- Register your NTN with CNIC, mobile number, and email
- Gather monthly/annual earning summaries from each platform you ride for
- Total your deductible expenses (fuel, maintenance, data)
- File your annual return declaring net business income by 30 September
Let NTNWaale Handle the Paperwork
NTNWaale registers gig and ride-hailing riders' NTN and files their returns remotely — send your app earning summaries over WhatsApp and we handle the rest.