Taxpayers Alert! Income Tax Return Deadline Extended AGAIN: What Is The Reason? Check New Date For ITR Filing

In major good news for taxpayers, the Income Tax Department has extended the deadline for income tax return (ITR) filing for the second time for financial year 2024-25. This will translate to the due date for ITR of assessment year 2025-26. The new deadline, however, is extended by a day.

Income Tax Return New Deadline:

In its latest notification on September 15, the IT department said, "The Central Board of Direct Taxes has decided to further extend the due date for filing these ITRs for AY 2025-26 from 15th September, 2025 to 16th September, 2025."

This comes after taxpayers faced issues and technical glitches in filing their ITR at the income tax portal. The IT department's official social media platforms were flooded with complaints over difficulty in filing their ITRs.

Also, it needs to be noted that the department carried out a maintenance mode of the e-filing portal from 12:00 AM to 2:30 AM on September 16. This was done to enable changes in utilities.

Earlier, the deadline was extended to September 15 from the original due date of July 31st for ITR filing.

However, netizens are not happy about the latest deadline. Many complained the delay process of ITR forms and utilities on the portal, along with portal issues.

Netizens Reaction To ITR Filing Deadline Extension:

After IT department's new notification, a user named Kaustubh Davera said, "1. Utilities on the portal were not ready: dates extended by 1.5 months. 2. Taxpayers ask for an extension due to the faulty portal: dates extension of one day. 3 Advance tax installment deadline: forgotten."

While a user complained that the services are still not running even after 2:45 am.

A CA named Vibhor Gupta blamed the faulty portal as main reason why taxpayers could not file their ITRs. He tweeted, "You guys are making a mockery of genuine taxpayers and tax professionals who have toiled so hard to do their duty towards the nation diligently and you guys didn't even acknowledged the fact that the portal is faulty and is full of glitches. No words can be put this to explain this situation."

Another CA blamed Infosys for the delay. The CA tweeted, "When you issue notification then clearly specify Infosys was given 2.5 hours just to update one date in utilities and taxpayers were given 21.5 hours to file millions of pending returns and shamelessly write 21.5 hours as we are labours who do not have right to sleep."

Further, another CA named Atul Modani said, "The extension at the end of the due date when your portal was non functional since last 3 days which you very well knew as the daily numbers proved, that too as a beg of 1 day is as useless as functioning your portal and attitude and understanding of decision makers."

It needs to be noted that income tax portal's technical glitches has been a cause of concern since it went 2.0 in June 2021.

How Many ITRs Filed So Far?

As per the latest date, more than 7.3 crore ITRs have been filed till September 15, which is higher by a margin from 7.28 crore ITRs filed last year.

The number of ITRs filed is increasing consistently. In the assessment year 2024-25, when the deadline was July 31st, a total of 7.28 crore income tax returns were filed. This is higher from 6.77 crore ITRs filed in the assessment year 2023-24.