How Is the ITR Due Date Decided?
Understanding Audit Applicability Under the Income Tax Act, Companies Act, LLP Act and Trust Laws August 2026 Every year, taxpayers in India notice that not everyone files their Income Tax Return (ITR) by the same date. A salaried individual may have to file by 31st July, while a company, a large partnership firm, or an entity claiming exemption as a charitable trust often gets time until 31st October — or even 30th November. This difference is not arbitrary. It flows from a single, well-defined statutory mechanism in the Income Tax Act, which in turn borrows from audit requirements laid down in completely different laws — the Companies Act, 2013, the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008, and various trust laws. This blog explains, section by section, how the ITR due date is actually decided, why “audit applicability” is the real trigger behind the 31st October deadline, and how audits required under other statutes feed into the income tax timeline. It also flags the transition currently underway from the Income-tax Act, 1961 to the new Income Tax Act, 2025, which came into force from 1st April 2026. A quick note on timing: returns for Assessment Year (AY) 2026-27 relate to income earned in Financial Year 2025-26 (before 1 April 2026), so they continue to be governed by the provisions of the Income-tax Act, 1961, even though the new Income Tax Act, 2025 is now in force. From Tax Year 2026-27 onward (income earned on or after 1 April 2026), the new Act’s renumbered sections will apply. Both frameworks are covered below, with the corresponding new-law section numbers noted alongside the familiar old ones. Part 1: The Provision That Decides Everything — Section 139(1) The starting point is Section 139(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (the corresponding provision under the new law is Section 263 of the Income Tax Act, 2025). This section casts the basic obligation to file a return of income on every company and firm, and on every other person whose total income exceeds the basic exemption limit. Sub-section (1) itself does not fix a single date. Instead, it leaves the actual date to be worked out through “Explanation 2” to Section 139(1), which classifies every assessee into one of a few buckets and assigns a due date to each bucket. It is this Explanation — not the main provision — that is the real engine deciding whether a taxpayer gets until July, August, October or November to file. Part 2: The Due Date Buckets for AY 2026-27 (FY 2025-26) Based on Explanation 2 to Section 139(1) as it currently stands, the due dates work out as follows: 31st July of the assessment year — Individuals, HUFs and other non-corporate, non-firm taxpayers who are not required to get their accounts audited under any law (typically those filing ITR-1 or ITR-2). 31st August of the assessment year — Non-audit business and professional taxpayers filing ITR-3 or ITR-4 who are not liable to tax audit. This extended window (as opposed to the earlier 31st July date) reflects a change applicable for AY 2026-27, and taxpayers should always check for the latest CBDT notification or circular before relying on it, since these dates are occasionally extended further. 31st October of the assessment year — This is the big one, and the heart of this blog (see Parts 3-7 below). 30th November of the assessment year — Assessees required to furnish a transfer pricing report under Section 92E (successor Section 172 under the Income Tax Act, 2025). The 31st October date is what taxpayers, companies, LLPs and trusts most often ask about, and it is directly and explicitly tied to audit applicability — not just tax audit under the Income Tax Act, but audit under *any* other law as well. That phrase is the crux of the entire question, so it is worth unpacking carefully. Part 3: The Exact Statutory Language That Creates the Link Explanation 2 to Section 139(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 defines “due date” for this category of assessee as 31st October where the assessee is: “a company; or a person (other than a company) whose accounts are required to be audited under this Act or under any other law for the time being in force; or a partner of a firm whose accounts are required to be audited under this Act or under any other law for the time being in force, or the spouse of such partner…” Notice the phrase “under this Act or under any other law for the time being in force.” This is the statutory hook that pulls audits required under the Companies Act, the LLP Act, and various trust-related laws into the income tax timeline. A taxpayer does not need to independently cross the tax-audit turnover threshold under the Income Tax Act to land in the 31st October bucket — if any other applicable law compels an audit of that person’s accounts, the income tax due date automatically shifts to 31st October as well. This is precisely why a small private limited company with modest turnover, or a small LLP that has just crossed a contribution threshold, ends up with the same October deadline as a large, tax-audit-liable business — even if neither of them would independently trigger a tax audit under the Income Tax Act. Part 4: Tax Audit Under the Income Tax Act Itself — Section 44AB (New Section 63) Before looking at the other laws, it helps to understand the “home-grown” audit requirement under the Income Tax Act, since it is the most commonly encountered trigger for the October deadline. Section 44AB of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (renumbered as Section 63 under the Income Tax Act, 2025) makes audit of accounts compulsory in the following situations: For a business — where total sales, turnover or gross receipts exceed ₹1 crore in the year. This threshold is relaxed to ₹10 crore where cash receipts do not exceed 5% of total receipts and cash payments do not exceed 5% of total