The Income Tax department has announced a significant extension for the submission of audit reports for the 2024-25 fiscal year, granting taxpayers an additional month. The new deadline is now set for October 31, 2025.
In an official statement, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) confirmed that despite the income tax return filing portal operating smoothly—having received over 7.57 crore ITRs by September 23, 2025, and a substantial 4.02 lakh tax audit reports uploaded by September 24 (with more than 60,000 on September 24 alone)—an extension was deemed necessary.
This decision follows numerous requests from various professional organizations, including chartered accountant bodies. These groups highlighted considerable challenges faced by both taxpayers and practitioners in completing their audit reports within the original timeframe.
Key reasons cited for these difficulties include widespread disruptions caused by recent floods and other natural disasters across parts of the country, which have severely hindered normal business and professional operations. The matter also gained attention in various High Courts.
The CBDT officially stated, “Considering the representations from tax practitioners and their submissions before the Honorable Courts, the ‘specified date’ for furnishing audit reports under the Income-Tax Act, 1961, for the financial year 2024-25 (Assessment Year 2025-26) is officially extended from September 30, 2025, to October 31, 2025.”
The department further clarified that its e-filing portal has been stable and fully functional, efficiently handling the submission of various statutory forms and reports without any technical glitches. It assures users that the system is robust and capable of managing these filings.
Earlier, due to initial portal issues, the Income Tax department had already extended the ITR filing deadline for individuals and non-audited accounts by one day on September 15. At that time, over 7.54 crore ITRs had been filed by September 16, with 1.28 crore taxpayers having paid their self-assessment tax by the same date.