Income Tax Audit Deadline Extension: Tax Dept To Move Review Petition In Rajasthan HC
The income tax audit deadline extension row has sparked a legal face-off as the apex I-T Dept will now move the review petition in the Rajasthan High Court on an urgent basis, sources told NDTV Profit. This comes after the Rajasthan HC extended the tax audit report deadline to Oct. 31, 2025.
The I-T Dept may argue that the tax related deadline is statutory and beyond the judicial purview. It is also in the process of approaching the Supreme Court on the matter. Petitioners have argued that the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) granted similar extensions in past years.
The Court cited revised formats, portal glitches, overlapping timelines to extend the deadline. It has observed that without the extension of the tax audit deadline, taxpayers risk penalties, interest, loss of carry-forward.
Rajasthan HC directed CBDT to extended deadline
The Rajasthan High Court's Jodhpur bench, in an interim order, directed the CBDT to extend the last date for filing tax audit reports to Oct. 31. Hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the Jodhpur Tax Bar Association regarding the flaws in the I-T portal on Wednesday, a division bench directed the CBDT to issue a notification intimating the extension and listed the matter for next hearing on Oct. 27.
The counsel for the petitioner association submitted to the court that large firms, trusts, companies, and traders are required to complete their annual audits by Sept. 30, and now only a few days are left. Every year, around 40 lakh audit reports are filed in India before the deadline. As of Sept. 23, only about four lakh audit reports have been submitted nationwide, which means that filing 36 lakh audit reports in less than a week is impossible.
Not only tax professionals, but business owners across India have been demanding an extension of the deadline, the petitioner association argued, while citing similar petitions in other parts of the country. The petitioner also submitted that the utility for filing the Tax Audit Report was released on July 18, and major changes were made to it on Aug. 14, while the statutory due date remains Sept. 30, thus leaving the taxpayers with only 47 days, whereas under the law, they should have been given 183 days.
