ITR Filing AS 2025-26: Will Income Tax Department extend deadline again? Here are reasons...

Will the Income Tax Department once again extend the deadline for ITR filing for AY 2025-26 or FY 2024-25? Earlier, the deadline was extended from July 31 to September 15, so more than 50 days are left. However, income tax experts believe the deadline may be extended once again. The main reason for this is that the Income Tax Department has not yet issued both online and offline utilities for Forms 5, 6, and 7.

Income Tax Department yet to release ITR Forms

First, the government released ITR forms by the end of May and made certain structural changes. Later, the Excel-based utility was gradually released. However, the online (JSON) utility of ITR-3 is still not available, and the utility of ITR-5, 6, and 7 has also not been released yet. Though only a limited number of taxpayers use these forms to file ITR through an Excel-based utility. Besides, Forms 5, 6, and 7 are generally for trusts, partnership firms, and companies, and their number is in lakhs. However, these taxpayers have not been able to start their ITR filing till now due to the absence of the utility.

Will CBDT extend ITR filing deadline?

The Central Board of Direct Taxes has not yet said anything on the extension of the deadline for filing Income Tax Returns (ITRs) for Assessment Year 2025–26 in Forms 5, 6, or 7. However, as the required utilities have not been made available, the compliance window would be squeezed for the taxpayers. As the utility for ITR-3 is currently available only in Excel format and the JSON-based online filing option is still pending, it is logical that the Income Tax Department extend the deadline. 

It is interesting to note that the repeated delay in technical preparations and late release of utilities by the government has made this tax season confusing. The IT Department will be left with no option but to extend the deadline if the utilities for Forms 5, 6 and 7 are not released in the coming days.