ITR Forms for Financial Year 2024–25 Not yet released: What can be the reason:

ITR Forms for Financial Year 2024–25 Not Yet released: What can be the reason The Income Tax (I-T) Department has not yet announced the Income Tax Return (ITR) forms for the Financial Year 2024–25 (Assessment Year 2025–26), and this is April 2025. This delay has raised questions and doubts in the minds of numerous taxpayers, as policies and tax structures for the fiscal year have already been declared with the release of the financial budget 2025.

Essential Filing Last Dates for AY 2025–26

Although the release date of the form has not been declared yet, the dates for filing the Income Tax Returns (ITR) remain the same until unless amendment circular is issued regarding the revised date.

• 31st July 2025 – For individuals and authorities not requiring an audit
• 31st October 2025 – For businesses or professionals requiring an audit
• 30th November 2025 – For authorities requiring audit and also subject to TP (Transfer Pricing) provisions

Technical or Portal-Readiness Issues

One likely reason for the delay is that the backend systems might not be fully prepared yet.

• The Income Tax e-Filing portal might still be getting updated to tackle changes in forms or new features.
• The tools used to file returns, such as JSON, Java, or Excel versions, are probably still being developed and tested.

The government may also be working to make sure that data from AIS (Annual Information Statement) and TIS (Taxpayer Information Summary) is linked properly for auto-filled return forms.

Pending Adherence Alignment

It is been seen in the past few years that new reporting standards have been introduced, they are:

• Cryptocurrency/VDAs disclosures
• Foreign income and assets reporting
• New rules on capital gains reporting in detailed schedules

Ensuring that ITR forms are correspondent with such comprehensive disclosures requires careful form design and review, which can lead to a delay in the release of the final notification.

Possible Delay in Release Planning

It’s also possible that the department is choosing to release things step-by-step, where:

• Forms for simpler returns (ITR-1, ITR-4) will be issued first
• Detailed or complex forms, such as ITR-2, 3, ,6 will be issued following them

However, this step-by-step approach has not begun yet, which suggests there may be a delay in getting approvals or finalising the technical details.