Every year the entire country treats 31 July as the ITR deadline. This year that assumption will cost some people money, and give others a month they did not know they had. The filing calendar for AY 2026-27 has been split by return type.
The ITR due date AY 2026-27 is 31 July 2026 for ITR-1 and ITR-2 filers, and 31 August 2026 for ITR-3 and ITR-4 filers who are not subject to tax audit.
Audit cases move to 31 October 2026, and transfer pricing cases to 30 November 2026. Not sure which deadline applies to you? Send us your income sources on WhatsApp and we will tell you your exact date in one reply. Message TaxKitab
Quick Summary
| Category | ITR Due Date (AY 2026-27) |
| ITR-1 / ITR-2 filers | 31 July 2026 |
| ITR-3 / ITR-4, non-audit | 31 August 2026 |
| Audit cases (Sec 44AB) | 31 October 2026 |
| Transfer pricing (Sec 92E) | 30 November 2026 |
| Belated / revised return | 31 December 2026 |
💡 TaxKitab Tip The extra month for ITR-3 and ITR-4 is not free time. It exists because business books close late, not so you can start late. In our practice, the clients who use August well are the ones who close their books in July and use August only for reconciliation. The ones who treat 31 August as the start date end up filing on 30 August with unreconciled 26AS data — and then spend December answering a notice. — From our Salaried Tax Guide. Available at taxkitab.com/books (₹199)
What actually changed this year
Until AY 2025-26, non-audit taxpayers shared one date. Salaried employees, freelancers, small traders and professionals all filed by 31 July. That single date created a portal traffic jam every year in the last week of July. The staggered calendar splits that load.
Salaried and capital-gains filers stay on 31 July. Business and professional filers who are not audited get until 31 August. The logic is sound. A salaried person’s data is largely fixed by June, once the salary TDS certificate is issued.
A business owner cannot finalise income until the books are closed, ledgers are reconciled and GST returns for the year are tied out. One month of breathing room matches how the work actually happens. ⚠️ Verify live at incometax.gov.in before you rely on any date. The department has extended deadlines in past years when the portal or the utilities ran late.
The trap in the middle
Here is where people get hurt. The extension applies to ITR-3 and ITR-4 only where tax audit does not apply. It does not apply because you happen to have a business. If your turnover crosses the Section 44AB audit threshold, or you are opting out of presumptive taxation after having opted in, or your presumptive profit is below the deemed rate and your income exceeds the exemption limit — you are an audit case.
Your date is 31 October, and your audit report is due a month before that. Two clients with identical ITR-3 forms can therefore have two different deadlines. The form does not decide your date. The audit position does.
Why filing on time matters more than the fee
Most people think about Section 234F and stop there. The late fee is ₹1,000 if total income is up to ₹5 lakh, and ₹5,000 above that. Annoying, but survivable. The expensive consequences are the ones nobody mentions.
You lose the old regime. The new regime is the default. If you file a belated return, you cannot opt into the old regime for that year. A taxpayer with heavy 80C, home loan interest and HRA can lose far more than ₹5,000 in tax by filing three days late.
You lose loss carry-forward. Business losses and capital losses cannot be carried forward if the original return is filed after the due date. A ₹5 lakh capital loss you cannot carry forward is not a ₹5,000 problem. It is a ₹1 lakh problem spread over the next eight years.
You pay interest under Section 234A. One percent per month on unpaid tax, from the due date until you file. The one relief that is genuinely useful The revised return window has been extended to 31 March 2027 for AY 2026-27, up from the earlier 31 December cutoff. This matters because AIS and 26AS data keeps updating well after July.
Interest credited by a bank in March, a TDS return filed late by a client, a broker’s statement revised in September — all of it can surface after you have filed. Earlier you had until December to fix it. Now you have until March. But the relief only works if you filed the original return on time.
A belated return can be revised, but you have already lost the regime choice and the loss carry-forward by then. Filing on time and revising later is a strategy. Filing late and hoping to fix it is not. What you should be doing this fortnight If you are salaried, your return is a July job.
Download your AIS and 26AS, compare them against your salary certificate and bank interest, and file. Do not wait for the last week — the portal slows down, and a failed submission on 31 July is still a belated return. If you are a business owner or professional without audit, use July to close books and August to file. Do not carry the reconciliation into the last week.
If you are an audit case, your real deadline is already running. The audit report is due one month before the ITR. October feels far away in July. It is not.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which date applies?
Capital gains do not create a business. You file ITR-2 and your date is 31 July 2026. Intraday and F&O trading, however, is business income — that pushes you to ITR-3 and potentially into audit. I filed ITR-4 last year on 31 July.
Can I file on 31 August this year?
Yes, provided you are not subject to tax audit. Confirm the audit position first, because that is what decides the date, not the form.
Does the Income Tax Act 2025 apply to my AY 2026-27 return?
No. The new Act came into force on 1 April 2026 and governs income earned from that date onward. Your AY 2026-27 return covers FY 2025-26 income and stays entirely under the Income Tax Act 1961. I missed 31 July.
Can I still claim the old regime?
No. A belated return is taxed under the new regime by default, with no option to switch. This is the single most expensive consequence of late filing for salaried taxpayers.
References
Income Tax Act 1961 — Sections 139(1), 139(4), 139(5), 234A, 234F Finance Act 2026
How This Connects
If you are working out which deadline applies, our guide on the The changes under the Income-tax Act 2025 feed directly into this decision. If you have already missed the date, the refund delay consequences are worth understanding before you file.
Call or WhatsApp: +91 7448200422 · See our Income Tax Return Filing service, or if audit applies to you, our Tax Audit service. For the deduction side, our Salaried Tax Guide (Rs 199) covers regime choice in detail.
Related Reading
- Advance Tax Q2 Due 15 September
- Section 43B(h)
- Section 194Q Is Now the Only TDS Rule on Purchase of Goods (206C(1H) Removed)
Need help with this? TaxKitab handles Income Tax Return Filing for businesses across India and overseas. You may also find our TDS Return Filing useful. Talk to us.
