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 payments (i.e., the business is substantially non-cash/digital).
- For a profession — where gross receipts exceed ₹50 lakh in the year.
- Presumptive taxation cases — a person eligible for presumptive taxation under Section 44AD, 44ADA or 44AE (new Act: Sections 58(2) and 61(2), among others) but declaring profit lower than the prescribed presumptive rate, with income exceeding the basic exemption limit, is also pushed into compulsory tax audit even though turnover may be well below the general thresholds.
Under the new Act’s Section 63, non-account-payee cheques and drafts are deemed to be cash payments for the purpose of computing the 5%/95% digital-transaction test — closing a loophole that existed in practice.
Audit report due date: The tax audit report (Form 3CA/3CB and 3CD under the old law) must be filed one month before the ITR due date — i.e., typically by 30th September for most assessees whose ITR falls due on 31st October. The new Act codifies this directly: Section 63 fixes the specified date for furnishing the audit report as “the date one month prior to the due date for furnishing the return of income under section 263(1).”
This one-month gap is deliberate — the law wants the audited financials and the auditor’s report finalised first, so that the return itself can be prepared and filed accurately using audited figures. It is this built-in preparation buffer that justifies pushing the ITR due date itself from July/August to October for anyone subject to audit — whether that audit arises under Section 44AB/63 or under a completely different statute.
Part 5: Companies Act, 2013 — Why Every Company Lands in the 31 October Bucket
This is the clearest illustration of “audit under any other law” at work.
Under the Companies Act, 2013, every registered company — private limited, public limited, one-person company, or a Section 8 (not-for-profit) company — must have its accounts audited every year, regardless of turnover, profit, or size. There is no small-company or nil-turnover exemption from statutory audit under company law, unlike the turnover-based exemption available under Section 44AB of the Income Tax Act.
Because Sections 139 to 147 of the Companies Act, 2013 make audit compulsory for every company, every company automatically falls within the phrase “whose accounts are required to be audited… under any other law for the time being in force” in Explanation 2 to Section 139(1) of the Income Tax Act. That is why the ITR due date for companies is 31st October (30th November if the company also has international/specified domestic transactions requiring a transfer pricing report under Section 92E/172) — irrespective of whether the company’s turnover would have independently triggered a tax audit under Section 44AB/63.
Part 6: LLP Act, 2008 — When Does an LLP Get Pulled Into the October Deadline?
Limited Liability Partnerships are treated differently from companies. Unlike companies, an LLP is not automatically required to be audited every year — the LLP Act, 2008 prescribes a turnover/contribution-based threshold, similar in spirit to the tax-audit threshold, but set independently under LLP law.
The governing provisions are:
- Section 34(4) of the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008 — Requires every LLP whose turnover or contribution exceeds prescribed limits to get its accounts audited in accordance with the rules.
- Rule 24 of the LLP Rules, 2009 (particularly sub-rule 8) — Prescribes the actual thresholds: an LLP must get its accounts audited if, in any financial year, its turnover exceeds ₹40 lakh, or its contribution (capital) exceeds ₹25 lakh. If neither threshold is crossed, the LLP may opt out of audit, though it must still maintain proper books of account.
Because this audit obligation arises “under any other law for the time being in force” (the LLP Act, not the Income Tax Act), an LLP that is required to be audited under Section 34(4)/Rule 24 automatically falls into the 31st October ITR due date bucket under Explanation 2 to Section 139(1) — even in a year where its turnover might be below the ₹1 crore/₹10 crore tax-audit threshold under Section 44AB/63. Conversely, an LLP below both the LLP Act thresholds and the Income Tax Act thresholds remains a non-audit case and typically files by 31st July (or 31st August, per the current extended non-audit business deadline).
Where an LLP does cross the Income Tax Act’s own turnover thresholds, it will separately need a tax audit report under Section 44AB/63 as well — the two audit requirements (company/LLP law audit and income tax audit) are legally distinct, even though both can point to the same 31st October filing date.
Part 7: Trusts — Three Layers of “Audit” to Keep Straight
Trusts are where people most often get confused, because the word “trust” touches at least three different legal frameworks, each with its own audit concept. It is worth separating them clearly.
7.1 The Indian Trusts Act, 1882
This is the general law governing private (non-charitable) trusts in India. It deals with the creation, administration and duties of trustees, but it does not itself prescribe any statutory audit requirement. A purely private trust governed only by the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 has no inherent audit obligation under that Act — audit requirements for trusts come instead from tax law (if the trust is registered for income tax exemption) or from state-level public trust legislation (if it is a public charitable/religious trust).
7.2 Audit Requirement Under the Income Tax Act (Registration and Exemption Route)
A charitable or religious trust that wants exemption from tax under Sections 11 and 12 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 must first obtain registration under Section 12A/12AA/12AB (these three provisions have now been consolidated into a single unified registration provision — Section 332 of the Income Tax Act, 2025 — for what the new law calls a “Registered Non-Profit Organisation” or RNPO).
Once registered, if the trust’s total income (computed before claiming the Section 11/12 exemption) exceeds the maximum amount not chargeable to tax, the trust is required to get its accounts audited by a Chartered Accountant and file the audit report in the prescribed form, as mandated under the erstwhile Section 12A(1)(b) framework and Rule 17B of the Income-tax Rules, 1962:
- Form 10B is required where gross income (before exemption) exceeds ₹5 crore, or the trust has received any foreign contribution, or has applied any part of its income outside India.
- Form 10BB applies to all other registered trusts/institutions that do not meet any of the Form 10B triggers.
The audit report must be filed at least one month before the due date for filing the ITR — i.e., typically by 30th September, ahead of the 31st October due date applicable to trusts filing ITR-7. It is this audit obligation “under this Act” itself (rather than “any other law”) that pushes a tax-exempt trust into the October filing bucket, alongside the fact that ITR-7 filers are, as a category, generally aligned with the audit-case due date.
7.3 Audit Requirement Under State Public Trust Legislation
Separately, and in addition to the income tax audit above, a public charitable or religious trust registered under a state Public Trusts Act — for example, the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act, 1950 (formerly the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950) — has its own independent audit obligation, owed not to the Income Tax Department but to the state Charity Commissioner.
Under Section 34 of the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act, 1950, read with the relevant Rules, every public trust (other than those with very small annual income, currently exempted below ₹15,000) must have its accounts audited annually. The audit must be completed within six months from the date of balancing the accounts (i.e., generally by 30th September for a trust following the financial year), and the audit report must be submitted to the Charity Commissioner within a fortnight (14 days) of completion of the audit.
This state-law audit obligation does not, by itself, change the income tax due date — it is a compliance requirement running on a parallel track under a different regulator. However, it illustrates the broader pattern: multiple laws can simultaneously mandate audit of the same set of accounts, and wherever the Income Tax Act’s own “any other law” language captures such an audit, the 31st October rule under Explanation 2 to Section 139(1) gets triggered.
Part 8: Transfer Pricing Cases — The 30th November Date
A small but important category deserves mention. Where an assessee has entered into an international transaction or a specified domestic transaction and is required to furnish an accountant’s report under Section 92E of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (successor: Section 172 of the Income Tax Act, 2025, requiring Form 3CEB — proposed to be renumbered as Form 48 under the new Act), the ITR due date is pushed further out to 30th November of the assessment year. This recognises that transfer pricing documentation and benchmarking studies take additional time to prepare even after the regular tax audit is complete.
Part 9: Putting It All Together
The logic of the ITR due date can be summarised as a simple decision tree:
Is the taxpayer required to furnish a transfer pricing report under Section 92E/172? If yes, the due date is 30th November.
If not, is the taxpayer’s accounts required to be audited — either under the Income Tax Act itself (Section 44AB/63, including the presumptive-taxation override), or under any other law such as the Companies Act, 2013 (Sections 139–147, compulsory for every company), the LLP Act, 2008 (Section 34(4) read with Rule 24 of the LLP Rules, 2009, triggered by turnover above ₹40 lakh or contribution above ₹25 lakh), or the trust’s registration/exemption conditions under the Income Tax Act (Section 12A/12AB, now Section 332, read with Rule 17B and Forms 10B/10BB)? If yes to any of these, the due date is 31st October.
If none of the above applies, the taxpayer files by 31st July (most individuals/HUFs) or 31st August (non-audit businesses and professionals filing ITR-3/ITR-4), subject to whatever the CBDT specifies for that particular assessment year.
Part 10: A Note on the Transition to the Income Tax Act, 2025
The Income Tax Act, 2025 has been in force since 1st April 2026, replacing the Income-tax Act, 1961. Returns for AY 2026-27 (income of FY 2025-26) are still governed by the old Act because that income was earned before the new law took effect. From Tax Year 2026-27 onwards, the renumbered provisions will govern compliance. For quick reference, the key mappings relevant to this discussion are:
- Return of income: old Section 139(1) → new Section 263(1)
- Tax audit: old Section 44AB → new Section 63
- Presumptive taxation (business/profession): old Sections 44AD/44ADA → new Sections 58(2)/61(2)
- Transfer pricing accountant’s report: old Section 92E → new Section 172
- Trust/NPO registration: old Sections 12A/12AA/12AB → new Section 332
- Interest for late filing: old Section 234A → new Section 423
- Fee for late filing: old Section 234F → new Section 428
The substance of the rules — thresholds, the “any other law” trigger, and the general structure of due dates — has largely been carried forward, though the Income-tax Rules, 2026 notified under the new Act will eventually confirm the exact forms and procedural details.
Conclusion
The ITR due date is not fixed by looking at who the taxpayer is in isolation — it is fixed by asking whether the taxpayer’s accounts are subject to audit, under any law whatsoever. Section 139(1) (now Section 263) of the Income Tax Act does the classifying, but the actual audit obligation is frequently created elsewhere: the Companies Act, 2013 for companies, the LLP Act, 2008 for larger LLPs, and the Income Tax Act’s own trust-registration provisions (backed, for public trusts, by state legislation such as the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act) for charitable and religious trusts. Once any of these audits becomes applicable, Explanation 2 to Section 139(1) pulls the taxpayer into the 31st October bucket, regardless of whether the Income Tax Act’s own Section 44AB/63 threshold is independently crossed.
This blog is for general informational purposes only and reflects the law and thresholds as understood as of August 2026. Due dates are periodically extended by CBDT circulars/notifications, and the Income Tax Act, 2025’s rules and forms were still being finalised at the time of writing. Please verify the applicable due date and audit requirement for your specific facts with a qualified Chartered Accountant or tax professional before relying on this information.