The Income Tax Department on Monday extended the last date for filing income tax returns for companies for the assessment year 2026-27 by three weeks to November 21. Under this, companies will now be able to file income tax returns for the assessment year 2026-27 by November 21 instead of October 31. Similarly, the last date for submission of tax returns has been extended from September 3. October 21. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement that the last dates for both compliances have been extended.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has decided to extend the due date for filing return of income for the assessment year 2026-27 in case of persons mentioned at S. No. 2 in Explanation 2 in the following table under sub-section (1) of section 139 of the Income Tax Act, 1916. pic.twitter.com/wyLzVBXSNY
— Income Tax India (@IncomeTaxIndia) September 28, 2026
A deadline extension was sought
Tax experts have long been demanding an extension of the deadline for filing statutory audit reports and income tax returns of companies. He said that in cases without an audit report, after the August 31 deadline for filing income tax returns, there was very little time left to complete the audit. Amit Aggarwal, senior partner, Nangia & Company LLP, said the extension of the deadline shows that the CBDT has taken into account the real difficulties faced by taxpayers and tax professionals in the current compliance period.
The last date for filing ITR is 31 July
Agarwal said the additional 21 days will give businesses enough time to complete tax audits, make necessary reconciliations and ensure that the information provided in the income tax returns is correct and proper evidence is available in the form of documents. The last date for filing income tax returns for salaried taxpayers is July 31. At the same time, the last date is August 31 for such taxpayers having income from business or profession, whose accounts are not required to be audited. The Income Tax department had earlier said that a record over 7.8 crore income tax returns have been filed till August 31 for the assessment year 2026-27.
