look news india
The biggest and main question revolving in the minds of crores of taxpayers of the country who are filing Income Tax Returns (ITR Filing) for the Assessment Year (AY) 2026-27 is whether this year the government will extend the last date for filing ITR? If you too are sitting idle in this wait, then be careful. According to the currently available concrete information and the opinion of tax experts, the possibility of extension of the last date this year (ITR Deadline Extension) appears to be very less or negligible.
According to the rules, common citizens of the country, students, pensioners, salaried people and all other taxpayers who are not legally required to get their accounts tax audited, must file their income tax returns. July 31, 2026 Will have to be filed in any case.
E-filing portal in full swing, more than 65 lakh people have filed returns
Compared to the last few years, this time the official e-filing portal of the Income Tax Department is working very smoothly and properly. No technical glitch or hanging problem is being observed on the portal, due to which a large number of aware taxpayers have started filing their returns before time.
According to the latest live data of the e-filing portal, till now more than 65 lakh taxpayers have successfully completed the process of filing their ITR. It is clear from these figures that this year the work of return filing is going on at its normal and fast pace, due to which there is no additional pressure on the government to extend the date.
Why did the date have to be extended last year (2025)? Know the main reason
This is coming to the mind of taxpayers because last year the government had extended the deadline. But experts say that last year’s situation was completely different from today. At that time, it took more time than expected to fully integrate (implement) the new ITR forms and the new tax rules of the Budget on the portal. Due to this, ITR filing utilities were issued by the Income Tax Department with considerable delay.
Due to this technical delay, keeping in mind the interests of the taxpayers, the deadline of July 31 was first extended to September 15 and later it was extended by one more day to September 16. But this year (2026) no such major reason or technical crisis has come to light. The department had made most of the ITR forms and offline utilities live on time in the month of April-May itself.
Don’t wait for the last moment; Important advice from tax experts
Tax experts and financial advisors say that taxpayers should not make the mistake of waiting for the last week of July 31. Technical problems may arise due to sudden increase in traffic on the portal in the last days. Therefore, without any delay, immediately take the necessary steps given below:
-
Document ready: Take out Form 16, salary slip and complete bank account statements of both your employers (if you have changed jobs).
-
Matching of AIS and TIS: Go to your e-filing account and match the Annual Information Statement (AIS) and Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS) with Form 26AS.
-
Benefits of early refund: By filing ITR on time or early, your form gets processed quickly, so that if you get any tax refund, it gets credited to your bank account very soon without any interruption. Additionally, it also protects against hasty mistakes and notices from the Income Tax Department.