ITR Last Date: Every Deadline, and What You Can Still Do After It

For FY 2025-26 (assessment year 2026-27), the ITR last date was 31 July 2026 for salaried and other non-business taxpayers, 31 August 2026 for business without audit, and 21 November 2026 for audit cases. After that come the belated return (31 December 2026), the revised return (31 March 2027) and the updated return (31 March 2031).

Which date applies to you?

Are you looking for one date? There are four. The law sets the due date by the kind of taxpayer you are. The dates below are for income earned between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026. This return is still filed under the Income-tax Act, 1961.

The 31 August date is new this year. Until last year, a small seller on presumptive tax shared the 31 July date with salaried people. The e-filing portal now shows 31 July, "or 31st August for non-audit cases". The extension to 21 November is only for audit cases. It gave nothing to salaried or non-audit taxpayers.

Not sure which row is yours? It follows your form, so first settle which ITR form you should file.

What you can still do after the due date

Missing your date does not shut the door. It makes filing cost more, one step at a time. Here is the full ladder for FY 2025-26.

Belated return

A belated return is simply a return filed after your own due date. Besides the fee, you lose the choice of the old tax regime and the right to carry forward business and capital losses. The steps and the costs are in our guide to filing a belated return.

Revised return

A revised return replaces a return you have already filed, when you find a mistake or a missed income. Earlier, the window closed on 31 December. From this year it runs three months longer.

One thing to know plainly. As on 12 November 2026, the e-filing portal's help page still marks the 31 March 2027 date with a note that says "as proposed in the Finance Bill, 2026". The department's own validation rules for the AY 2026-27 forms already build in the fee for a revised return filed after 31 December 2026, and tax publishers report the change as enacted. We would treat 31 March 2027 as usable, and 31 December 2026 as the safe date.

Updated return

The updated return is for declaring more income after every other window has closed. It can be filed within 48 months from the end of the assessment year. It cannot be used to increase a refund or a loss, and it always comes with additional tax.

E-verification: the deadline inside every deadline

Uploading is not filing. You get 30 days from the upload to e-verify the return, or to send a signed ITR-V to the Centralised Processing Centre in Bengaluru. If you verify later than that, the date of verification becomes your filing date, and the late consequences follow. A return that is never verified is treated as invalid.

So a return uploaded on 30 December 2026 and verified on 5 February 2027 has missed 31 December. Verify on the day you file. Aadhaar OTP takes a minute.

A worked example: the same mistake at three dates

Meera is salaried, with a total income of Rs 14,00,000 under the new regime. She filed ITR-1 on 20 July 2026. Later she notices that she left out fixed deposit interest of Rs 60,000. At her level that interest falls in the 15% slab.

• Extra tax: 15% of Rs 60,000 is Rs 9,000. Add 4% cess of Rs 360. Total Rs 9,360, plus some interest.
• She revises on 10 December 2026. She pays Rs 9,360 and the interest. No fee.
• She revises on 15 January 2027. The same tax and interest, plus a fee of Rs 5,000, because her income is above Rs 5 lakh. The delay of five weeks costs more than half the tax itself.
• She acts in May 2027. Only the updated return is left. The Rs 5,000 fee goes away, but she pays additional tax of 25% on the tax and interest. On Rs 9,360 alone that is Rs 2,340, and the rate climbs every year she waits.

The mistake people usually make

They hear "the last date is 31 March 2027" and relax. That date is only for correcting a return that already exists. If you have not filed at all, your last normal date is 31 December 2026. The second mistake is to read the audit extension as an extension for everyone. The third is to upload on the last evening and forget the 30-day verification.

What changes for tax year 2026-27

Income you earn from 1 April 2026 is taxed under the Income-tax Act, 2025. The pair of terms "previous year" and "assessment year" gives way to one term, the tax year. Returns are covered by section 263 of the new Act and the late fee by section 428. The portal's transition notes give these limits for tax year 2026-27: a belated return within 9 months from the end of the tax year, a revised return within 12 months (again marked as proposed), and an updated return within 48 months from the end of the financial year that follows the tax year. The first return under the new Act is not due until July 2027. Until then, everything you file for FY 2025-26 stays under the old Act.

Should you do this yourself?

If you have salary and bank interest, you can file or revise on your own in an evening. Take help if you have marketplace sales with TDS, capital gains, a loss to carry forward, or a regime choice that changes your tax by a large amount. With the remaining dates this close, a second correction is the costly one.

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