Tax audit deadline 2026: Who must file the report by Sept 30 and when is the last date to file ITR for such taxpayers

Taxpayers who are earning income from business or professional services have different income tax return (ITR) deadlines, depending on whether their accounts are subject to tax audit or not.

While taxpayers not requiring an audit had to file their return by August 31, 2026, those whose accounts need to be audited get additional time to complete the process, as per income tax department's schedule.

The tax audit report is due by September 30, 2026. Meanwhile the ITR filing deadline for such taxpayers is October 31, 2026.

Who needs a tax audit?

The requirement of filing a tax audit report within the prescribed due date is based on the nature of the activity and turnover or gross receipts.

For businesses, a tax audit is generally required if profits exceed ₹1 crore in a relevant financial year. However, this limit is raised to ₹10 crore where the cash receipts and cash payments levels are less than 5% of total receipts and payments, respectively.

For professionals, on the other hand, the general threshold for requiring a tax audit is ₹50 lakh in gross receipts.

This provision also applies to taxpayers opting out of presumptive taxation schemes such as Sections 44AD, 44ADA, 44AE, 44BB, and 44BBB, or those declaring lower income than prescribed under these schemes, subject to conditions including exceeding the maximum exemption limit.

How to file an audit report?

Under this requirement, a taxpayer is required to get their books of account audited by a Chartered Accountant. The audit involves verifying financial information such as turnover, receipts and expenses.

These audit reports must be filed electronically in prescribed forms, which include Form 3CA and Form 3CB.

Penalty for missing tax audit

Failure to obtain the tax audit or furnish the audit report within the prescribed due date may attract a penalty under Section 271B of the Income-tax Act.

The penalty can be equal to 0.5% of total sales, turnover or gross receipts, subject to a maximum of ₹1,50,000.

However, no penalty is applicable in cases where the taxpayer establishes a reasonable cause for the failure under Section 273B of the Income-tax Act.

The taxpayers should also not wait until the last moment to file their tax audit report. The audit process requires the books of account, supporting documents, reconciliations and explanations to be complete and available to the auditor well before the prescribed due date.

Crores of returns already filed

A record figure over 7.8 crore returns were filed for AY 2026-27 as of August 31, the income tax department revealed in a social media post on Tuesday.

“A record 7.8 crore+ ITRs have been filed for AY 2026-27 as on August 31, 2026,” the department said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). These filings include over 5.9 crore ITR-1 and ITR-2 returns, which were filed by the July 31 deadline.

To draw a comparison, over 7.3 crore ITRs had been filed by September 16, 2025, which was the extended deadline for non-audit taxpayers for AY 2025-26, according to an Upstox report.