The Income Tax Return (ITR filing) deadline for Assessment Year (AY) 2025-26 is now completely over for taxpayers in the non-audit category. In a late-night announcement on September 15, the government gave 24-hour additional relief to taxpayers who were preparing to file their ITR but were constantly facing all sorts of technical issues. Even after the one-day relief in the due date, taxpayers continued to complain about technical glitches, which, according to the Income Tax Department, were problems related to the choice of browser by users and device settings.
While the due date of September 16 for filing of returns is over, netizens along with CAs are expressing their displeasure over the due date not being extended. Social media is flooded with such complaints. With no deadline extension, lakhs of taxpayers can now only resort to belated ITR filing.
CAs were demanding 15-30 days extension
A large number of chartered accountants are angry with the Income Tax Department’s decision with regard to ITR deadline. They say that a 24-hour extension was ‘token relief’ and, considering the situation, an extension of at least 15–30 days was needed.
CAs say that this year the ITR filing process was very difficult and a one-day extension did not help anyone. They argue:
Delay in ITR forms and audit reports: This time many ITR forms and audit utility were not available on time. This affected the preparations.
Portal glitches: Technical glitches like login failure, Form 26AS and AIS download errors, OTP issues and slow processing continued to surface on the ITR e-filing portal.
Workload pressure: Lakhs of returns had to be processed in a short window. CAs say that it was impossible to reach every small business or individual taxpayer and file returns in a “24-hour extension”.
Allegation of tokenism: The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and several regional associations say that the government gave a one-day extension only to fulfill a formality.
Appeal of associations and government’s stand
The Income Tax Practitioners Association (ITPA), along with several Bar and Tax Associations, has passed a resolution condemning the government’s move to not extend the ITR filing deadline of September 16.
These associations and individual tax professionals have over the last few days complained about recurring issues like portal crashes, delays in Excel utility releases and other persistent difficulties while filing returns. These ongoing issues, according to them, have left taxpayers struggling to complete filings smoothly.
The associations have now joined hands to move the court. A joint writ petition will be filed before the Punjab & Haryana High Court to challenge the decision not to extend ample time to taxpayers to file their returns, according to reports.
How many ITRs have been filed till September 16 deadline for ITR?
Meanwhile, data updated till September 16 on the Income Tax Department’s portal shows that around 7.53 crore income tax returns (ITRs) were filed. These numbers are encouraging as over 25 lakh more returns have been filed than last year. This data is expected to be updated again today during the day.
Even when taxpayers and tax professionals continued to complain of technical glitches, the government maintained that filing numbers have reached record levels and the system is working smoothly. The government argues that the practice of extending the deadline every year should be abolished so that taxpayers learn to comply on time.
Many chartered accountants believe that the government avoided giving relief by citing filing numbers. Whereas the reality is that behind the “record ITR filing” lies enormous pressure and overworking of many professionals. They say that lakhs of taxpayers have missed the deadline, and now they will have to bear the penalty.