Is ITR filing due date/deadline extended again for AY 2025-26?

Posts on various social media platforms may make you believe that the ITR filing due date has been extended. But it's not true.

For the last few days, several tax professionals and bodies representing them have been demanding extension of ITR filing and tax audit due dates. However, the Income Tax Department or the Finance Ministry has not responded to such demands, yet.

Instead, the Income Tax Department has urged taxpayers to file their returns as soon as possible.

The CBDT had already extended the due date of ITR filing for AY 2025-26 (FY 2024-25) from July 15 to September 15 .

"The extension of the due date for filing Income Tax Returns for FY 2024–25 (AY 2025–26) to 15 September 2025 provides additional time for taxpayers to complete their compliance obligations," Press Information Bureau said in a document recently.

What should you do?

Ideally, you should try to finish it today itself, as a lot of ITR filing rush is expected in the next three days.

Taxpayers should not wait for any due date extension. Even if the Income Tax Department decides to announce an extension of the deadline later, taxpayers will benefit by filing as soon as possible. Both for peace of mind and early refunds.

According to the Income Tax Department's e-filing portal, 5,47,93,630 returns were filed till September 11, 2025, which is around 15 lakh more than the 5,30,07,987 returns till September 10, 2015. Of the 5.47 crore returns filed, taxpayers have verified over 5.14 crore returns, while the Income Tax department has processed more than 3.66 crore verified returns.

Nearly 8 crore taxpayers are expected to file their returns in 2025. This means that around 2.5 crore returns are still pending as of September 15, 2025. Last year, 7.28 crore returns were filed up to the July 31 deadline.