Income Tax Return Utility still not released: Will ITR Due Date be extended?:

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has formally notified ITR Form 1 and Form 4 for the 2024-25 financial year, which refers to income from April 1, 2024, through March 31, 2025. The Income Tax Department hasn't yet released the ITR utility for the financial year 2024-25 (assessment year 2025-26), even though almost a month has passed into the new financial year. So that means you still cannot file the ITR. This is unusual compared to previous years when forms were typically released before the end of the financial year or at the beginning of the assessment year.

Why the delay?

Tax professionals say that there are a number of reasons behind the delay:

• The Finance Act was enacted as late as July 2024, much later than the typical February-March timing, leaving tax authorities with less time to effect changes
• Material changes in taxation through amendments in the 2024 Budget take time to be introduced in the ITR forms
• Modifications to taxation of capital gains (such as new rates, holding periods, and abolition of indexation advantage) are difficult to execute
• The tax office might be revamping its systems to more effectively map information from different sources and minimise errors

Legal principle regarding the availability of forms

Various High Courts have earlier held that

• ITR forms to be made available by April 1st of the assessment year
• Delays are allowed only for valid reasons
• When delays impact taxpayers' compliance capacity, authorities ought to grant extensions on filing deadlines

Will the July 31, 2025, deadline be extended?

Tax experts believe an extension is likely. As one expert notes, "Almost one month has already been lost, and the ITR Forms and necessary utilities for filing tax returns have not been notified. Therefore, taxpayers are deprived of this time for preparing the tax return and considering this, it is possible that the tax department may extend the due date." This pattern has been observed in previous years when delays in releasing forms resulted in deadline extensions.