Tax audit, ITR deadline: Professionals push for extension amid portal's technical glitches

On September 24, 2025, the Karnataka State Chartered Accountants Association (KSCAA) submitted a representation to the Prime Minister’s Office, highlighting the challenges faced by taxpayers and chartered accountants due to systemic issues in the Income Tax e-Filing portal. The association requested an extension of the tax audit report (TAR) and ITR filing deadlines, citing repeated delays in utility releases, technical glitches, and overlapping compliance timelines. Similarly, the Chartered Accountants Association, Jalandhar, sent a request to the Finance Ministry urging an extension of the tax audit deadline.

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) from the Tax Bar Association in the Rajasthan High Court has highlighted these ongoing issues. The petition draws attention to how recurring technical faults, lagging utility rollouts, and overlapping deadlines have left taxpayers unfairly open to penalties and the inability to carry losses forward. The PIL states, "The taxpayers contended that these factors unfairly expose taxpayers to penalties, interest liabilities, and loss of carry-forward of certain losses despite no fault on their part."

In response, the Rajasthan High Court delivered an interim order, acknowledging the issues facing both taxpayers and practitioners. The court has directed the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to extend the filing deadline for tax audit reports (TARs) and associated income tax returns for the 2025–26 assessment year. In its interim order on Wednesday, the court moved the due date from September 30 to October 31, 2025.

The interim order also instructs authorities to publish a formal notification extending the TAR submission deadline, in view of ongoing technical disruptions and late utility releases. The court specified that the time for TAR filing should be prolonged by 30 days, up to 30 October 2025.
The High Court, after considering submissions from both sides, directed in its interim order:

The CBDT must issue a notification extending the TAR filing deadline.

The filing facility must be fully operational.

The TAR due date is extended by 30 days to October 30, 2025, with a further hearing scheduled for October 27, 2025.

CA Hardik Kakadiya, President of CAAS, requested extending TAR to November 30, 2025, ITRs for audit cases to December 31, 2025, and transfer pricing filings to January 31, 2026.

KSCAA emphasized that repeated deadline extensions would be unnecessary if the administration adhered to timely release of forms, schemas, and utilities, citing the 2015 judicial directive in All Gujarat Federation of Tax Consultants vs. CBDT, which instructed that e-filing forms should be available from April 1 each year.

The association highlighted key challenges:

Delayed schema and utility release – For AY 2025–26, critical forms (3CA–CD, 3CB–CD, 10B, 10BB) were released only in mid-August, leaving insufficient time for preparation and reconciliation.

Portal instability – Login failures, downtime, e-verification errors, upload/validation failures, payment discrepancies, and AIS download issues increased professional workload and compliance risk.

Ineffective guidance and helpline support – Limited communication on revised forms and reliance on automated responses caused confusion and errors.

Violations of the Taxpayers’ Charter – Portal failures, system restrictions, and poorly scheduled deadlines undermined fair treatment, timely access to information, and cost-effective compliance.

KSCAA urged authorities to enhance system stability, provide meaningful extensions, strengthen grievance redressal, ensure transparency, adopt staggered deadlines, incentivize early filers, and engage collaboratively with taxpayers. The association reiterated its willingness to work closely with the government to reduce compliance burdens and foster a taxpayer-friendly ecosystem.