After 102 Days of Wait, Excel Utilities for ITR-2 & ITR-3 Finally Released for AY 2025-26

The Income Tax Department has released the Excel utilities and Schemas for ITR-2 and ITR-3. The ITR-2 form is used by individuals and Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) who do not have income from business or profession but may have income from salary or pension, income from house property, capital gains (such as selling shares, property, etc.), foreign assets/income, and other sources (like interest, dividends, etc.). The ITR-3 form is used by individuals and HUFs who have income from business or profession. This also includes freelancers, professionals, and partners in a firm (but not LLP owners).

Both these forms (ITR-2 and ITR-3) are slightly more detailed forms in comparison to the ITR-1 or ITR-4 forms, and numerous taxpayers with complex income sources use these forms to file returns correctly.

This release has enabled individuals having taxable capital gains, crypto income, and more to start filing their ITRs today. Earlier, only ITR-1 and ITR-4 forms were released, which permitted only a selected group of individuals with specific income classifications to file their ITRs.

However, it should be noted that only Excel utilities have been made available yet. Meaning, individuals who are planning to file their ITR online via the e-filing portal will still need to wait a little, as the online filing mode has not been made available yet. However, the Income Tax Department is soon planning to enable it in the upcoming days.

The Income Tax Department has also notified the release on platform ‘X’ (formerly Twitter), saying, “Attention Taxpayers! Excel Utilities of ITR-2 and ITR-3 for AY 2025-26 are now live and available for filing.”

The Excel Utility is a tool provided by the Income Tax Department that helps taxpayers perform the following actions:

• Fill out their ITR form offline in Excel.
• Validate the information.
• Generate an XML file.
• Upload that file on the Income Tax e-filing portal.

The schema is like the backend technical file that third-party software developers (such as ClearTax, Winman, etc.) use to build their own filing tools that are compatible with the official format. Without a schema release, these developers cannot update their tools.