Income Tax: Amid grumbles and rants, taxpayers and CAs want due date extended

The last date for filing income tax returns (ITR) was supposed to end on Monday before the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) decided to push it by one day till 16 September. For the past several days, several tax filers, including tax experts, have been grumbling about their inability to file returns because of the slow website.

Experts have expressed their anguish on social media by saying they can not download AIS or TIS, which prevents them from filing income tax returns.

As a result, there have been several demands for an extension of the deadline.

Preeti Sharma, Partner, Global Employer Services, Tax and Regulatory Services, BDO India, says, “As of Sunday, around 6.69 crore returns have been filed versus 7.28 crore last year by the deadline, leaving a sizeable gap. In fact, if we factor in the year-on-year growth trend in return filings, this gap is likely to be even wider. Add to this the portal glitches — delays in AIS/26AS downloads and slow response times — and it’s clear many taxpayers are struggling through no fault of their own. A brief extension would give them breathing space and help ensure accurate filings rather than rushed errors.”

Expressing similar sentiments, Dipesh Jain, Partner, Tax Practice, Economic Laws Practice (ELP), says, “During 2024, more than 7.25 crore ITRs were filed till 31 July, 2024. Last day was a little shy of 70 lakh. Whereas, it seems, based on the public information, around 6.7 crore ITRs were filed till yesterday. Presuming some increase, ie percentage growth in the number of ITRs to be filed by taxpayers, there could be some bandwidth issues during the last day of today, and hence a few days' extension could be a welcome move.”

“On 14 September, the I-T portal was not working so if people could not file their returns because of technical glitches then extension should be done but by few days. Also people should file earlier and not wait for last date to file return specially when government gave such a long extension already,” says Saumya Aggarwal, assistant professor, Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi.

On social media, some CAs have gone to the extent of saying that not extending the deadline would lead to the ‘failure of democratic principles’.

Slow website during day time

Even those who managed to file tax returns did so during the off-peak hours.

“We filed zero returns during office hours between 10 to 8 in the past four days. We managed to do so only after 11 at night and before 9 in the morning. During the day, it took us up to four hours to file just one ITR,” says Chirag Chauhan, a Mumbai-based chartered accountant.

CA Pratibha Goyal, partner at PD Gupta & Company, said the due date (15 September) should be extended since the e-filing portal has not been working smoothly for the past few days. There are many problems with regard to tax payment, filing of returns, and downloading of AIS, TIS, 26AS, and ITR Forms.

She also says that although she has filed around 40 ITRs in the past three days, several of her clients' returns are still pending because of the slow website. "There have been several cases where money was deducted from the bank but not reflected on the Income Tax Portal," she asserts.

On Sunday, fake news circulated on social media, alleging that the last date had been extended, but the I-T department rubbished the claims. However, around midnight, CBDT decided to extend the deadline by one day till 16 September. This was the second extension given for filing ITR for AY 2026. Originally, the last date was 31 July which was extended till 15 Septmber.

“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,” Income Tax (I-T) department shared on X (formerly Twitter).

Income Tax department recently shared on X platform that around 7 crore returns have been filed and counting. the I-T department also mentioned that the helpdesk is functioning on a 24x7 basis, and support is being provided through calls, live chats, webex sessions and X.

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