Taxbot.pk

Tax compliance, simplified for Pakistan’s freelancers.

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Inspiration

I have always wanted to build something impactful and more technical than just a design.

During my summer vacation, I was trying to start my own freelancing career. While researching how freelancers actually earn and manage their money, I came across Pakistani freelancer tax compliance.

The more I researched, the more confusing it became. Growing up, tax was never something I was taught about, and I realised that many young freelancers could face the same problem.

That research led me to investigate the problem, validate the idea, and eventually build TaxBot.pk.

What it does

TaxBot.pk brings the main parts of Pakistani freelancer tax compliance into one platform.

It includes an FBR tax calculator, ePRC ledger, remittance compliance checks, annual PDF reports, a compliance calendar, a PSEB registration guide, a local-income tracker, and a financial health tracker.

The goal is not just to calculate tax. I wanted a freelancer to feel more confident and organised when managing their taxes.

TaxBot also allows users who need professional assistance to connect with our partner, Scounts.

How we built it

I used Bolt.new to plan and build the application, Claude for research and prompt engineering, and Supabase for the database and backend.

AI helped accelerate the development process, but I made the product decisions myself — including the workflow, features, interface, data structure, and what should or should not be automated.

I originally wanted to build a much more advanced system where users could connect their bank accounts and automate the entire process. After researching the technical and regulatory complexity involved, I decided to use a more controlled approach with user-guided data entry.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge wasn't actually writing the code.

My first attempt at building the project was in VS Code, and I lost the src folder.

After spending so much time on the project, having to restart was extremely discouraging. The hardest part was rebuilding the confidence to start again.

I eventually restarted and rebuilt the project.

I also changed many parts along the way, especially the ePRC forms and workflows. I had to continuously rethink features based on what would actually be reliable and useful instead of simply building the most technically advanced version possible.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The biggest accomplishment is simply seeing TaxBot as a working product and knowing that I built it from the ground up.

After launching it, I shared it in Facebook groups and on LinkedIn. At the time, I only had two LinkedIn connections, and initially, nobody interacted with it.

Then I received an email saying that because the app wasn't being used, my Supabase database would temporarily pause.

Honestly, that hurt.

But the very next day, I received a request with a message. Things started moving from there.

Since then, I have continued improving TaxBot, grown my network to more than 100 connections, and established a partnership with Scounts.

Whenever I use TaxBot myself, I still have the same thought:

"Wow, actually I built this."

What we learned

TaxBot taught me much more than how to build a web application.

I learned about Pakistani tax compliance, but I also learned how important research, validation, product design, user experience, and execution are.

Most importantly, I learned that building a product isn't about making everything as automated as possible.

Sometimes the better decision is to step back, understand the risks, and choose a simpler and more reliable approach.

I also learned that failure doesn't necessarily mean the project is over. Losing my first version could have been the end of TaxBot, but restarting taught me how to continue when things don't go as planned.

What's next for Taxbot.pk

The next step is to make TaxBot more reliable and reduce the amount of manual work users have to do without compromising compliance accuracy.

I would like to explore better ways of handling financial documents and structured banking data, while keeping users in control of the information that ultimately affects their tax filing.

I also want to continue improving the user experience and expanding the platform based on feedback from actual freelancers.

The long-term goal is simple: make Pakistani freelancer tax compliance easier to understand, easier to manage, and much less intimidating.

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