Income Tax Department Updates ITR-5 and ITR-6 e-Filing Utilities for AY 2025-26:

Income Tax Department Updates ITR-5 and ITR-6 e-Filing Utilities for AY 2025-26 As of now, the Income Tax Department has released e-filing utilities for all the Income Tax Return (ITR) forms (from Form 1 to 7) for the Assessment Year 2025-26 (Financial Year 2024-25). There are no pending utility releases as of early October 2025. These utilities are essential tools that facilitate the process of filing the Income Tax Return (ITR) on the e-Filing portal. The tax department releases different types of e-filing utilities throughout the tax filing season.

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Release Dates of E-filing Utilities for AY 2025-26 Below are the key release timelines for all e-filing utilities for the assessment year 2025-26 (financial year 2024-25): ITR-1 (SAHAJ), ITR-2, ITR-3, and ITR-4 (SUGAM):

• The very first Excel-based utilities were released in May.
• The Excel Utilities for ITR-1 (SAHAJ) and ITR-4 (SUGAM) were released on May 30, 2025.
• The Online Mode utilities for ITR-1 (SAHAJ) and ITR-4 (SUGAM) were released on June 4, 2025.
• The Common Offline Utility (JSON-based) for ITR-1 (SAHAJ) and ITR-4 (SUGAM) was released on June 11, 2025.
• The Common Offline Utility was later updated to cover ITR-1 to ITR-4 on September 24, 2025.

ITR-2:

• The Excel Utility for ITR-2 was released on July 11, 2025.
• The Online Mode utility for ITR-2 was released on July 18, 2025.
• The latest Excel Utility Update for ITR-2 came on September 16, 2025.

ITR-3:

• The Excel Utility for ITR-3 was released on July 11, 2025.
• The Online Mode utility for ITR-3 was released on July 30, 2025.
• The latest Excel Utility Update for ITR-3 came on September 16, 2025.

ITR-5:

• The Excel Utility for ITR-5 was released on August 08, 2025.
• The offline utility for ITR-5 was released on September 6, 2025.
• The latest offline utility update for ITR-5 came on October 2, 2025.

ITR-6:

• The Excel Utility for ITR-6 was released on August 14, 2025.
• The Online Mode utility for ITR-6 was released on September 25, 2025.
• The offline utility for ITR-6 was released on September 24, 2025.
• The latest offline utility update for ITR-6 came on October 2, 2025.

ITR-7:

• The Excel Utility for ITR-7 was released on August 21, 2025.
• The Online Mode utility for ITR-7 was released on September 19, 2025.
• The offline utility for ITR-7 was released on September 18, 2025.
• The latest offline utility update for ITR-7 came on September 30, 2025.
• The offline utility was released on September 18, 2025.

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What Are e-Filing Utilities? e-Filing Utilities are digital tools provided by the Income Tax Department to assist individuals, firms, and companies in preparing and submitting their Income Tax Returns (ITRs). There are different types of e-filing utilities:

• Common Offline Utility (COU): A single software that supports multiple ITR forms.
• Excel Utility: An Excel-based tool for preparing and validating ITR forms before uploading them to the e-Filing portal.

These utilities help taxpayers fill in details such as income, deductions, exemptions, and other relevant information in their Income Tax Returns (ITRs) easily without making any mistakes and making manual calculation errors. What Has Been Updated Now? Recently, the Income Tax Department has made changes in the e-filing utilities of the following ITR forms for the assessment year 2025-26 (financial year 2024-25):

• ITR 5 - Common Filing Utility (COU)
• ITR 6 - Common Filing Utility (COU)
• ITR 6 - Excel Utility

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Let’s understand what each of these updates means: ITR 5

• For persons other than (i) an individual, (ii) an HUF, (iii) a company, and (iv) a person filing Form ITR-7
• Document Utility (Version 1.1.2) (27.2 MB)
• Date of release of the latest version of the utility: 02-Oct-2025
• Date of release of the first version of the utility

ITR 6

• For companies other than companies claiming exemption under section 11
• Document Utility (Version 1.1.1) (27.5 MB)
• Date of release of the latest version of the utility: 02-Oct-2025
• Date of release of the first version of the utility