CCTAX Urges CBDT to Extend ITR and Tax Audit Due Dates Amid Severe Technical and Weather Disruptions:

CCTAX Urges CBDT to Extend ITR and Tax Audit Due Dates Amid Severe Technical and Weather Disruptions The Chandigarh Chartered Accountants Taxation Association (CCATAX) recently sent a formal communication dated August 21, 2025, to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), requesting an extension in the income tax return (ITR) and Tax audit deadline for the assessment year 2025-26 (financial year 2024-25). In communication, CCATAX referred to the recent glitches noticed in the income tax portal, server crashes, discrepancies in details of AIS and Form 26AS, session timeouts and others. Additionally, recently, ICAI has made a few significant amendments to its format for financial statements for non-corporate entities, for which training and software updates are required. Therefore, it slows down the process.

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The tax department has extended the due date for filing the income tax return (ITR) to September 15, 2025, from July 31, 2024, for FY 2024-25, for some context (for taxpayers not liable for conducting an income tax audit). However, the due date for the income tax audit is the same, i.e., September 30, 2025, for the assessment year 2025-26 (FY 2024-25). The secretary of the Chandigarh Chartered Accountant Taxation Association (CCTAX) said, "The current compliance calendar is unrealistic. Professionals are facing technical bottlenecks, delayed utilities, and monsoon disruptions; this extension is not a luxury, it’s a necessity." CCTAX also said, "Our members work closely with taxpayers and businesses to ensure timely and accurate compliance under the Income Tax Act. In this spirit, we wish to highlight the genuine practical difficulties being faced during the current filing season. While we deeply appreciate the Income Tax Department’s efforts to strengthen digital infrastructure and simplify procedures, the exceptional challenges prevailing in Assessment Year 2025–26 have made it extremely difficult to adhere to statutory timelines." CCTAX, in its representation, emphasised how several taxpayers are facing problems in filing their ITRs due to glitches in the income tax portal, like server crashes, session timeouts, upload failures, etc. It said, "These problems hinder reconciliation and compromise filing accuracy.” Further, due to heavy rainfall and flooding in areas of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Bihar, Assam, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra, taxpayers there are facing issues in filing their returns, such as power outages, internet disruptions, and office inaccessibility, making compliance nearly impossible.

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This financial year, 2024-25, even ITR forms and tax audit utilities were made available late by around three months, which has created a huge difference in comparison to past years. Usually, they are released in July 2025. These delays have brought several amendments to the schema and formats and have notably troubled the compliance process. CCTAX said extending the ITR filing and tax audit deadline will help both taxpayers and the government in the following ways:

• Helps taxpayers file their returns correctly and completely
• Gives time to match details with AIS and Form 26AS
• Makes it easier to switch to the new return formats
• Gives relief to areas affected by floods
• Improves the quality and accuracy of the data submitted
• Supports better tax management and helps collect revenue more effectively

As of August 20, 2025, only 3.35 crore income tax returns have been filed. This is much lower than last year, when 7.41 crore returns were filed by July 31, 2024. That means about 4.06 crore fewer returns have been filed so far, a drop of nearly 55%. With just 25 days left until the current deadline of September 15, 2025, more than 15 lakh returns would need to be filed every day to catch up. This is very difficult to manage in such a short time. The president of the Chandigarh Chartered Accountants Taxation Association (CCTAX), who is the ex-chairman of the ICAI Chandigarh Branch, said, "In light of the exceptional circumstances outlined above, we humbly appeal to the CBDT to kindly grant the requested extensions. A timely notification will ease the burden on taxpayers and professionals and help preserve the integrity of the compliance process for Assessment Year 2025–26."