The Income Tax Department released the Excel utilities for ITR-1 and ITR-4 on May 29 this year, almost with a delay of 2 months. With this release of utilities, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) allowed taxpayers to start filing their income tax return (ITR) for the financial year 2024-25 (assessment year 2025-26). Since then, the department has released corresponding utilities for various other ITR forms (ITR 1-6). Utilities (both offline and online) for ITR-7 are yet to be released.
Since May 29, the day when the ITR filing officially started this year, around 3.29 crore returns have been filed. Of them, 3.19 crore returns are verified, according to the Income Tax Department’s website. However, only 1,13,66,260 verified returns (which is not even 40% of the total returns filed) have been processed by the government so far in about 3 months now.
Govt extended ITR filing deadline to September 15
The finance ministry on May 27 announced that taxpayers who do not need their accounts to be audited will have time till September 15 to file their income tax return for the AY 2025-26, an additional 46 days to comply with return filing obligation. The original deadline was July 31.
The finance ministry cited “extensive changes” introduced in ITR forms and utilities as the key reason for this deadline extension. The ministry said that the decision was taken “considering the time required for system readiness”.
The notified ITRs for AY 2025-26 have undergone structural and content revisions aimed at simplifying compliance, enhancing transparency, and enabling accurate reporting, according to the tax department.
These changes necessitated additional time for system development, integration and testing of the corresponding utilities.
This extension was also aimed at mitigating the concerns raised by stakeholders and provide adequate time for compliance, thereby ensuring the integrity and accuracy of the return filing process.
What is the current status of ITR utilities?
The government is yet to release utilities for all the 7 ITR forms notified for AY 2025-26. The release of utilities (offline and online) for ITR-7 is still pending. In fact, the Excel utility for filing of returns using ITR-6 was released last week only.
What are ITR utilities?
ITR utility has structured digital interface required for filling income tax return forms online and offline. Corresponding ITR form utilities also help in form submission and validation. Every year, the release of ITR utilities marks a crucial step in the tax return filing process. ITR utilities incorporate schema validation, online digital interface, and system integration with third party softwares required for return submission. The e-filing functionality is typically rolled out in phases, beginning with simpler forms such as ITR-1 and ITR-4, followed by more complex forms.
