Income Tax Return filing deadline for AY 2026-27: With just 17 more days to go for the last date to file tax returns for the assessment year 2026-27 (financial year 2024-25), chartered accountants are urging the Income Tax Department to extend the deadline further. The Chandigarh Chartered Taxation Association (CCATAX) has reportedly requested the tax department to give some additional time for ITR filing and tax audit for FY2024-25.
The central government in May this year announced extending the tax return filing due date to September 15 from July 31, 2025. Remember, the deadline was extended only for individuals, Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs), and others whose accounts do not need auditing.
Now, the CCATAX has reportedly asked for another deadline extension, citing technical glitches, data mismatch between AIS and Form 26AS, server crash, session timeouts and other issues.
Why did govt extend the ITR filing deadline in May?
After extending the ITR filing deadline in May, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in light of several practical challenges, including the delayed release of ITR forms, late availability of utilities on the portal, and issues related to TDS reconciliation and Form 26AS/TIS mismatches.
ALSO READIncome Tax Return processing time AY 2025-26: When will you get refunds? How many ITRs have been filed so far in AY 2025-26?
As of August 28, 2025, over 3.90 crore income tax returns (ITRs) were filed and more than 3.72 crore tax returns were verified. The total number of returns processed stands at nearly 2.47 crore, according to the latest data updated on the Income Tax Department portal.
However, there are still more than 5 crore taxpayers expected to file their income tax returns in FY 2025-26, if we go by the last assessment year data. Over 9.1 crore income tax returns were filed for the financial year 2024-25. So keeping in view last fiscal year’s tax return filing numbers, not even 50% target is reached.
Visible lag in the return filing process
Yes, there is a visible lag in the filing process this year due to some obvious reasons. The tax filing season kicked off almost with a two-month delay because of late rolling out of ITR forms and corresponding utilities by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). Now when the deadline is approaching, taxpayers are allegedly facing a number of other technical issues.
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