The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has decided to extend the specified date for filing various audit reports for the Previous Year 2024–25 (Assessment Year 2025–26), from September 30, 2025 to October 31, 2025, for assessees referred to in clause (a) of Explanation 2 to sub-section (1) of section 139 of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
Income Tax Audit due date extended for AY 2025-26
In a press release dated September 25, 2025, CBDT said:
CBDT extends specified date for filing of various reports of audit for the Assessment Year 2025-26
The 'specified date' of furnishing of the report of audit under any provision of the Income-tax Act, 1961, for the Previous Year 2024-25 (Assessment Year 2025-26), in the case of assessees referred to in clause (a) of Explanation 2 to sub-section (1) of section 139 of the Act, is 30th September, 2025.
The Board has received representations from various professional associations, including Chartered Accountant bodies, highlighting certain difficulties being faced by taxpayers and practitioners in timely completion of audit report. The reasons cited in these representations include disruptions caused by floods and natural calamities in certain parts of the country, which have impeded normal business and professional activity. This matter has also come up before High Courts.

Tax Audit Report Filing 2025-26: Two High Courts in the country – the Karnataka High Court and the Rajasthan High Court – have directed the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to extend the deadline for filing Tax Audit Reports (TAR) under Section 44AB of the Income Tax Act, 1961, by one month. Tax audit reports can now be filed until 31 October 2025.

The Karnataka High Court order came on the basis of a writ petition filed by the Karnataka State Chartered Accountants Association (KSCAA), seeking an extension of the tax audit deadline.

Earlier, the Rajasthan High Court’s Jodhpur Division Bench noted that the CBDT has granted such exemptions in previous years. This interim order came on a petition filed by the Jodhpur Tax Bar Association. Similar petitions are also being heard in other high courts across the country.

On September 19, 2025, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) via Circular No. 13 /2025 gave relief to taxpayers from paying interest on tax demand notices related to the Section 87A tax rebate for special rate incomes like Short Term Capital Gains (STCG) on equities. However, the same circular states that taxpayers who received such a tax demand notice must pay by December 31, 2025 so as to become eligible for the waiver of interest.

Additionally, the circular mentions that if the ITR was processed and Section 87A tax rebate was granted on such special rate incomes (like STCG), rectifications have to be done disallowing such 87A tax rebate claims since they were mistakenly approved. Consequently, that circular said that tax demand notices will be issued, and interest under Section 220(2) will be applied to these tax demands.

S. Vasudevan, Executive Partner at Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan attorneys, says: “The CBDT in its recent circular (13 of 2025) has stated that rectifications have to be carried out by Central Processing Center (CPC) to disallow Section 87A tax rebate which was allowed to the taxpayers against income chargeable to tax at special rates. Considering this recent Circular issued by CBDT, it is likely that taxpayers will receive a demand notice with respect to rebate allowed under section 87A.”

The deadline for filing the income tax return (ITR) by taxpayers under the no-audit category for AY 2025-26 ended on September 16, 2025. According to the latest data updated as of 22 September, around 7.58 crore returns have been filed, and 6.86 crore have been verified. However, only 5.01 crore ITRs have been processed so far, which means around 1.86 crore returns are still pending for refund processing.

Meanwhile, taxpayers awaiting their refunds are taking to social media to complain about long delays in refunds. There are frequent complaints from netizens who have not received their refunds even after more than 3 months.

One user wrote on social media platform ‘X’, stating that he filed his ITR on 20th June and still awaiting his refunds.

Another user says he filed return for AY 2025-26 on 10th June and verified it on the same day but the ITR is yet to be processed.

The Income Tax Department has enabled online filing of ITR-5 and ITR-7 forms for Assessment Year (AY) 2025–26. Both forms are now available on the official e-filing portal with pre-filled data to make the process easier for taxpayers.

Unlike ITR-1 or ITR-2 which are meant for individuals, these two forms are for specific categories of taxpayers. If you are confused about whether you need to file ITR-5 or ITR-7, here is a simple guide.

WHO NEEDS TO FILE ITR-5?
The ITR-5 form is not for individuals, Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) or companies.

It is primarily used by firms, LLPs, Association of Persons (AOP), Body of Individuals (BOI), artificial juridical persons, cooperative societies, and local authorities that are not required to file ITR-7.

WHO SHOULD FILE ITR-7?
The ITR-7 form is designed for entities such as charitable and religious trusts, political parties, research associations, news agencies, universities, colleges, and other institutions specified in the Income Tax Act.

It has to be filed by anyone who is required to submit returns under sections 139(4A), 139(4B), 139(4C), or 139(4D).

The government has so far seen strong direct tax collections in the ongoing financial year. From the beginning of the financial year 2025-26 (FY26) to September 17, net direct tax collections rose by 9.18% to Rs 10.82 lakh crore. This rise in collections is primarily due to a growth in advance tax collected from companies and the slower pace of refund issuance.

Tax refunds drop by 24% over the same period last year
Between April 1 and September 17, 2025, the government issued income tax refunds of only Rs 1.61 lakh crore. This is a 24% drop from last year’s Rs 2.1 lakh crore.

Reacting to the lower refunds this year, many people on social media are asking questions about their ITR refund status and are concerned about income tax refund delays.

Corporate tax collections strong, individuals also paid more
Tax collections from companies remained steady. Corporate advance tax collections rose 6.11% to Rs 3.52 lakh crore. Net corporate tax collections stood at Rs 4.72 lakh crore as compared to Rs 4.50 lakh crore last year.

The ITR filing deadline (for non-audit cases) for Assessment Year 2025-26 has recently ended. Now, most taxpayers are curious about their income tax refund status. Some want to know when their income tax refund will be credited, while others are worried why their ITR status on e-filing portal is still showing ‘under process’ despite being filed 45 days to 60 days ago. The ITR filing deadline this year was extended twice and finally ended on September 16.

In this story, we’ve brought you the top 10 income tax refund FAQs 2025, which explain your most common doubts in simple language.

Q1. How long does it take for an income tax refund to be credited to your account after filing your ITR?
After you file and verify your ITR, the process starts immediately as everything is automated now. If your ITR has everything in order — such as income details, TDS claims, and bank details — you can expect your tax refund typically credited within 30 to 45 days. However, some taxpayers may experience income tax refund delays, especially if verification or scrutiny is required. In contrast, some taxpayers have received their refunds within a few hours.

With the September 16 deadline for filing Income Tax Returns (ITRs) over, millions of taxpayers are eagerly awaiting their refunds. Many are wondering if the Income Tax Department delays processing refunds if the refund amount is large, such as over Rs 50,000.

According to income tax rules, there is no upper limit on refunds. Whether your refund is Rs 10,000 or Rs 1 lakh or even greater, it will be credited the same way. However, refunds involving larger amounts may require additional scrutiny by the department, which may result in a slight delay in processing, experts are of the view.

Benefits for early income tax return filers
Taxpayers who filed their ITR much ahead of the deadline, i.e., weeks before the due date, found their e-verification completed within a few hours, and in many cases, the ITR was processed and refunds issued the same day.

However, for those who filed their returns on the last day or the day before, i.e. 15th or 16th September, the story was a little different. The e-filing portal was overloaded at that time, resulting in e-verification taking 24 to 48 hours and slow processing.

Net direct tax revenue has risen by 9.18 per cent to over Rs 10.82 lakh crore in FY 26 till September 17, as refunds witnessed a steep decline of 23.87%, according to data released by the government on Thursday. Gross tax collection rose by 3.39% during this period.

This included Rs 4.72 lakh crore of corporate tax, Rs 5.83 crore of non-corporate tax, Rs 26 thousand crore of Securities Transaction Tax, and Rs 291 crore classified as other taxes.

As per data released by the Income Tax Department, the total gross tax collection amounted to Rs 12.43 lakh crore, while refunds stood at Rs 1.60 lakh crore.

Advance tax collection for this period grew by 2.90%, standing at Rs 4.48 lakh crore, out of which corporate tax amounted to Rs 3.52 lakh crore (+6.11%) and non-corporate tax amounted to Rs 96.7 thousand crore (-7.30%).

With the ITR filing deadline of September 15, 2025, set to end in a few hours, many taxpayers and tax professional associations have been reporting difficulties in filing income tax returns (ITRs) due to glitches on the Income Tax e-filing portal (Incometax.gov.in). Users have been complaining since morning today (September 15, 2025) that the website is either taking too long to get loaded, freezing midway, or failing to process returns.

The errors taxpayers and chartered accountants (CAs) have been facing could be due to the rush of taxpayers who have been trying to login at the same time to beat the ITR filing deadline. Such a huge rush has caused the server to face overload issues. The server is unable to handle so many requests from taxpayers at the same time.

Even as taxpayers have been facing ITR filing-related issues due to the Income Tax website glitches, the Income Tax (I-T) Department has suggested some quick browser-related fixes to improve the ITR filing experience.

ITR filing FY 2024-25 due date extended: Amid a record surge in Income Tax Return (ITR) filings, the government has extended the deadline for Assessment Year 2025-26 by a day, pushing it to September 16, 2025.
The move came, even as the number of filed returns crossed 7.3 crore by 15 September, the highest ever. However, many taxpayers reported income tax portal access issues as the cutoff approached.

Why was ITR filing deadline extended?

The due date for Assessment Year 2025-26 had originally been 31 July 2025, but was shifted to 15 September because revisions in ITR forms required back-end changes in April-May.
With the 15 September cut-off approaching, many taxpayers reported difficulty accessing the e-filing portal and completing payments.

A few months ago, the Income Tax Department released a useful brochure detailing the relevant tax provisions which senior citizens (over 60 years) and super senior citizens (over 80 years) should know about.

What are the latest income tax slabs for senior citizens and super senior citizens for AY 2025-26 and AY 2026-27?
Chartered Accountant Suresh Surana says that for assessment Years (AY) 2025–26 and 2026–27, taxpayers, including senior citizens, can choose between the old tax regime and the new tax regime.

While the old regime offers higher basic exemption limits and allows for various deductions and exemptions, the new regime offers concessional tax rates but there is a restriction on exemptions and deductions. The income tax slabs differ on the basis of the age of the individual under the old regime, specifically for senior citizens (aged 60 years or more but less than 80 years) and super senior citizens (aged 80 years or above). In contrast, under the new regime, the same slab rates apply uniformly to all individuals, regardless of age.

With barely three days to go for the September 15 deadline to file income tax returns (ITRs), taxpayers are facing glitches and have taken to social media to give vent to their frustration.

Key e-filing platforms — Annual Information Statement (AIS), Form 26AS, and Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS )— have been intermittently down, unable to service request due to higher than normal volume.

Last year, 7.28 crore ITRs were filed by July 31, 2024. This year filings have been slow. By September 11, only 5.47 crore returns were filed.

The TRACES portal has also been down since September 11, leaving many taxpayers and professionals unable to access Form 26AS, download TDS certificates, or verify tax credits.

Will the Income Tax Department extend the last date to file income tax return (ITR) for the assessment year 2025-26? Crores of taxpayers are asking this question. The answer to this question might disappoint them if they are expecting another extension.

Considering the ITR filer numbers till September 8, the income tax return filing process is going on smoothly even though there are some complaints from tax professionals and individual taxpayers about technical glitches and other issues.

Number of ITRs filed till September 8
With 6 more days to go for the deadline, the number of income tax return filers has already crossed the 5-crore mark and this figure is on expected lines for the tax department. Of these 5 crore ITRs, the government has processed more than 3.39 crore tax returns.

ITR filing deadline 2025: With just days remaining for the September 15 deadline, the Income Tax Department’s portal shows a sluggish pace in Income Tax Return (ITR) filings for FY 2024-25, even as calls for an extension grow louder. As of September 7, only 4.89 crore ITRs had been filed out of 13.35 crore registered individual users. Of these, 4.63 crore returns were verified and just 3.35 crore processed, according to official data. The deadline applies to individual taxpayers and those whose accounts do not require audits.

Trade Bodies Seek Extension Amid Portal Glitches
Multiple trade and professional bodies have formally requested the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to extend the filing date, citing systemic delays and technical issues. The Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FKCCI) and the Chartered Accountants Association, Surat (CAAS), both pointed to the late release of ITR utilities and frequent portal glitches as major concerns. “The compliance load is unusually high this year,” CAAS said in a statement.

On September 1, the Bombay Chartered Accountants’ Society (BCAS) wrote to the CBDT asking for an extension across ITR filing, tax audits, and Transfer Pricing deadlines, citing unresolved system errors. The next day, the Tax Bar Association, Bhilwara, representing chartered accountants, tax advocates, and consultants, flagged persistent mismatches in Annual Information Statement (AIS), Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS), and Form 26AS. They also reported repeated login failures and timeouts during peak usage hours.

The Income Tax Department has issued an advisory saying that you can only file TDS and TCS correction statements for Q4 of FY 2018-19 to Q3 of FY 2023-24, until March 31, 2026. So, if your bank, employer, property buyer, or anyone else deducted the wrong TDS or deposited the right TDS amount with incorrect details in the challan, you need to ask for a correction by March 31, 2026 . After that date, you will lose your TDS credit and will have to pay tax again. If you don’t settle your tax liability, you may end up receiving a tax notice. What did the Income Tax Department say about the TDS correction statement? These are the details as per the official Income Tax Advisory: The Income Tax Act 1961 stands repealed w.e.f 01.04.2026 by virtue of section 536 of Income Tax Act 2025. Further, as per Section 397(3)(f) of Income Tax Act, 2025, deductor/collector may deliver a correction statement in such form and verified in such manner as may be prescribed, to the prescribed authority within two years from the end of the tax year in which such statement is required to be delivered under the said clauses or under section 200 of the Income-tax Act, 1961. Consequent to the above, correction statements for FY 2018-19 (Qtr. 4), FY 2019-20 to 2022-23 (Qtr. 1 to Qtr. 4) and FY 2023-24 (Qtr. 1 to Qtr. 3) shall be accepted only up-to 31st March 2026. The same are time barred by limitation on 31.03.2026 and would not be accepted from 01.04.2026 onwards.

With the Income Tax Return (ITR) deadline of September 15, 2025, a few days from now, the Income Tax (I-T) Department has made available Excel Utilities for filing updated returns in ITR-5, ITR-6 and ITR-7 forms for the AYs 2021-22 and 2022-23. According to the Income Tax Department website, “Excel Utilities for filing updated returns in ITR-5, 6 and ITR-7 for the AYs 2021-22 and 2022-23 as per Finance Act, 2025 are available now for filing.” These forms are available on the Income Tax Department’s website from September 6, 2025. ITR Form 5 is used by firms, LLPs, Association of Persons, business trusts and investment funds. ITR Form 6 is used by companies, while ITR Form 7 is used by specified companies.

Section 54 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 allows a taxpayer who has sold a residential house property to avoid paying income tax if they purchase another residential property within a certain timeframe. Using the benefit of this section, in the financial year 2015-16, Saroj sold her house in Punjabi Bagh, a locality in West Delhi, for Rs 2.7 crore, and used Rs 2.55 crore to purchase seven residential house units in Greater Noida. After that she showed her income as Rs 5 lakh in her Income Tax Return (ITR) and Rs 2.2 crore as tax exemption amount under Section 54.

Essentially Saroj took advantage of this tax rule (Section 54) and claimed a long term capital gains (LTCG) tax exemption of Rs 2.2 crore crore and thus she had to pay no income tax. However, she soon got into trouble with the income tax department.

The income tax officer said that the language used in the Section 54 law back then was that a person can get tax exemption for selling house property if he/she buys "a residential property" using the capital gains. The income tax officer said the phrase "a residential property" can't mean that she can claim tax exemption for the seven house units purchased by her by using the capital gains from the Punjabi Bagh property sale.

The passage of the New Income Tax Act, 2025 is a landmark development towards building a streamlined, simplified tax framework aimed at enhancing transparency, equity, and economic efficiency. Enacted by Parliament after intensive deliberation, the legislation reflects the Government of India’s commitment to modernizing the tax architecture in alignment with global best practices and domestic aspirations. By simplifying tax slabs, rationalizing exemptions, and integrating digital compliance mechanisms, the Act seeks to reduce administrative burdens while fostering a culture of voluntary compliance.

To modernize and simplify India’s outdated tax laws, the government announced a comprehensive review of the Income-tax Act, 1961. This led to the introduction of the Income-tax Bill, 2025, which was referred to a Select Committee of Parliament for detailed examination. After receiving extensive recommendations and suggestions from stakeholders, the government decided to withdraw the original Bill and introduce a revised version - The Income-Tax (No. 2) Bill, 2025. This updated Bill incorporated most of the committee’s inputs along with improvements in legal clarity and drafting. It was passed by both Houses of Parliament in the monsoon session and now forms the foundation of India’s new tax framework

From Complexity to Clarity: Rationale Behind the New Income Tax Act

The Income-tax Act, 1961 was introduced to replace the earlier 1922 legislation, based on recommendations from the Law Commission (1958) and the Direct Tax Administration Enquiry Committee.

Here are the factors contributing to the complexity of India's Income-tax Act, 1961:

Extensive Amendments: The Act has been amended nearly 65 times with more than 4000 amendments over six decades through annual Finance Acts and 19 separate Taxation Laws Amendment Bills. While these changes were intended to keep the law relevant, they significantly increased its length and complexity.


Numerous Exemptions and Deductions: Over the years, the Act was repeatedly amended to include various exemptions and deductions to support socio-economic goals, such as encouraging savings, boosting exports, promoting balanced growth, and advancing social equity. These provisions included benefits for export income, investments in specific sectors or regions, and spending on rural development.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Tuesday extended the timelines for income tax exemption available to sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and pension funds by six years.

The move allows these long-term global investors to claim benefits on eligible investments made in India till March 31, 2030. Earlier, the Department of Revenue had formalised a similar extension through a notification in July, following up on an announcement first made in the Union Budget earlier this year.

Under Section 10(23FE) of the Income Tax Act, introduced in 2020, notified SWFs and pension funds are exempted from paying tax on dividends, interest, and long-term capital gains arising from their investments in specified infrastructure businesses, subject to certain conditions.

The scheme, effective from April 1, 2020, was designed to attract large, stable pools of capital into critical infrastructure projects in India.