6th September, Saturday: The Income Tax Department extended the last date for filing the Income Tax Return (ITR) for the financial year 2024-25 (assessment year 2025-26) to September 15, 2025 this year. However, the figures show that the pace of income tax return filing is not what the tax department expected.
How many ITRs have been filed and processed so far?
According to available data as of September 4, 2025, over 4.56 crore individuals had filed their ITRs, with over 4.33 crore of those individuals having e-verified their returns. To date, however, the department has processed about 317 crore ITRs. That is a significant portion of filers are still awaiting the processing of their ITR and their reimbursement. Furthermore, over 3 crore people who file income tax returns must be preparing to submit their returns within the final 11 days. As of July 31, 2024, about 7.28 crore income tax returns were filed for AY 2024-25. Nearly 70 lakh ITRs were filed on a single day on 31st July, 2024, the last day before the deadline
Who should file their ITR by September 15?
The ITR filing due date or deadline for AY 2025-26 is September 15, but this is not for everyone. This deadline is intended for people whose accounts are not subject to audit. Various dates are announced annually by the Income Tax Department for various assessee categories to file their income tax returns for the preceding fiscal year. Citing operational and technical reasons, the government extended the ITR filing date this year well in advance of the July 31 deadline. This extended the deadline for filing taxes by 46 days for taxpayers whose accounts do not require an audit. Taxpayers whose accounts need to be audited will have a deadline of October 31, 2025, to file their tax return.
Importance of filing ITR on time
The sole importance is the fine. In case taxpayers whose accounts need to be audited miss this deadline, they can file a belated income tax return before December 31, 2025, with a penalty of up to Rs 5,000, which is definitely expensive. Besides the penalty, late ITR filers will also have to pay interest on the tax due. So if in your case there is tax due, you will have to pay interest of 1% every month on it (under section 234A).
Can there be another extension in the return filing deadline?
The deadline has already been extended by the government from July 31 to September 15 as previously mentioned. Now, if there's any need for another deadline, then the department will decide based on the number of files. The ease of filing the tax return and the discovery of any technical issues over the course of the following ten days or so will also determine this.
