Income Tax Return (ITR) Filing Due Date AY 2025-26 Latest Updates (August 25): With only 21 more days to go before the income tax return (ITR) deadline comes to an end, the total number of ITRs filed for AY 2025-26 (FY2024-25) has not even reached 50% of the overall returns filed last financial year. Taxpayers in AY 2025-26 will file returns for the income earned in the financial year 204-25. Over 9 crore income tax returns were filed last year (for financial year 2023-24), according to official data.
Total ITRs filed and processed so far this year
According to the Income Tax Department’s website, as of August 25, 2025, a total of 3,67,94,801 income tax returns (ITRs) have been filed. Of them, 3,54,25,015 returns are verified and 2,29,72,011 ITRs processed by the department.
What is the ITR filing due date this year?
The central government in May this year announced an extension in the ITR filing deadline for the AY 2025-26. Taxpayers whose accounts do not require any audit can now file their ITR till 15 September 2025. In this category, most of them are salaried people. The earlier due date to file ITR was July 31. Those whose accounts need an audit have time till October 31 to meet their tax-filing obligation.
Will there be ITR due date extension?
Will the Income Tax Department extend the due date to file return again? This is a million-dollar question and the same weighs heavily on the minds of taxpayers who are yet to file their tax returns. Taxpayers and tax professionals are hopeful that the government will give at least one more extension in the return filing due date, which currently ends on September 15.
The Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) recently demanded the ITR filing deadline be extended. It says that under the current circumstances, taxpayers and chartered accountants will not be able to file returns on time. Many chartered accountants echoed similar views.
The GCCI in a letter to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), also highlighted many “practical difficulties this time” that taxpayers and professionals are facing.
Key arguments behind ITR filing deadline extension plea
Delay in release of ITR forms and utilities: The Income Tax Department this year released various ITR forms and corresponding utilities with a significant delay. Utilities that were usually made available in April every year have been released in July 2025. Some utilities were released in August also, with less than a month before the deadline ends.
Technical glitches: Tax professionals and taxpayers also complained of problems like system errors, log-in failures and timeouts while uploading their ITR and tax audit reports on the income tax e-filing portal. Also, discrepancies in Form 26AS, AIS and TIS and delay in updates were other issues some of the taxpayers faced.
New financial statement format: The new standardized format implemented by ICAI for non-corporate entities has further complicated the process of compliance.
Festivals: Tax professionals also mentioned that the festivals starting from August and continuing in September would also affect the pace of work.
Amidst this, tax professionals and ordinary taxpayers believe that there is a genuine case this year that warrants a deadline extension for ITR filing. They want the deadline for non-audit cases to be extended from September 15 to October 30, 2025.
