The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has extended the income tax return filing deadline for certain taxpayers for Assessment Year (AY) 2026-27, giving them additional time to complete tax audits and file their returns.
The deadline for filing the Return of Income has been extended from October 31, 2026, to November 21, 2026, for taxpayers covered under the specified audit category under the Income-tax Act, 1961.
The CBDT has also extended the deadline for furnishing the tax audit report from September 30 to October 21, 2026 for the same category of taxpayers.
Who gets the extension?
The revised November 21 deadline applies to persons covered under Serial No. 2 in the table below Explanation 2 to Section 139(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961.
Broadly, this includes companies, taxpayers other than companies whose accounts are required to be audited under the Income-tax Act or another applicable law, and partners of firms whose accounts are required to be audited.
The extension is intended to provide additional time for completing audits, reconciling financial records and furnishing the required disclosures before filing the income tax return.
Tax professionals have pointed to the workload involved in reconciling books with GST returns, TDS/TCS records, AIS, TIS, Form 26AS and banking information during the tax-audit season.
Tax audit report deadline moved to October 21
For eligible taxpayers, the tax audit report deadline has been moved from September 30, 2026, to October 21, 2026.
The revised sequence means taxpayers covered by the extension will have to complete their audit report by October 21 and file the applicable ITR by November 21.
What about multinational companies?
Taxpayers covered by Section 92E, including those with international transactions or specified domestic transactions requiring Form 3CEB, have a separate timeline.
For these taxpayers, the ITR filing deadline remains November 30, 2026, while the tax audit and transfer-pricing report/Form 3CEB deadlines remain October 31, 2026.
The CBDT said a formal order or notification giving effect to the revised deadlines would be issued separately.
