Last Few Days Left for ITR Filing! Should You Wait for a Due Date Extension?
The last date of Income Tax Return (ITR) Filing is very close for the non-audit taxpayers. The original due date of July was extended to September 15, 2025, for Assessment Year 2025-26. This means that taxpayers have only four days left for filing ITR. However, several ongoing issues on the income tax portal are causing difficulties for many taxpayers to file their returns easily.
Many tax experts and bodies have submitted their representations seeking an extension in the ITR filing deadline as well as the Tax Audit Report filing deadline for AY 2025-26. They are highlighting several other issues that are affecting the timely filing of ITR and the Tax Audit Report.
This year, the ITR utilities for ITR-5, ITR-6 and ITR-7 were released late in August. Due to this, the professionals and taxpayers had very little time to file the ITRs. There were also mismatches between Form 26AS and the AIS, which added extra work for taxpayers to match the data. Additionally, the taxpayers are facing several issues on the income tax portal, including login problems, upload errors, e-verification issues, and OTP validation errors.
Data issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) reveals that the number of taxpayers filing ITR has been growing over the years, showing the expansion of the tax base in the country. Additionally, over 7 crore ITRs were filed for AY 2024-25 up to July 2024. While this number was 6.77 crore in AY 2023-24.
Therefore, to protect these taxpayers from being penalised for the difficulties that are out of their control, the tax bodies are writing to the Finance Minister to extend the due dates in advance.
Should You Wait for an Extension?
The professionals suggest not waiting for the ITR extension and filing the return as soon as possible to avoid any legal issues. As of now, there is no official communication from the CBDT regarding the extension. The tax experts say that waiting for the last minute to file can be very risky, as many taxpayers will be filing ITR on the due date, resulting in high traffic issues on the income tax portal. Therefore, it is better to file now.
