Short answer: for FY 2025-26 (AY 2026-27), the tax audit report is due by 21 October 2026 and the return for audit cases by 21 November 2026, both extended by CBDT Circular No. 7/2026. The statutory dates were 30 September and 31 October. Late filing of the audit report attracts a penalty under Section 271B of 0.5% of turnover, capped at ₹1,50,000 — subject to relief for reasonable cause.
Status on 30 September 2026: extended. On 28 September 2026 the CBDT issued Circular No. 7/2026, moving the specified date for furnishing the tax audit report from 30 September to 21 October 2026, and the return due date for audit cases from 31 October to 21 November 2026.
The extension reaches only the persons at S. No. 2 of the table below Explanation 2 to Section 139(1) — companies and audited assessees who do not file the transfer pricing report. Transfer pricing cases are untouched: Form 3CEB remains due 31 October 2026 and the return 30 November 2026.
With the salaried filing season closed, this is the window that matters for businesses and professionals.
| Obligation | Due date |
|---|
| Return — ITR-1 / ITR-2 filers | 31 July 2026 |
| Return — ITR-3 / ITR-4 filers not liable to audit | 31 August 2026 |
| Tax audit report — Form 3CA or 3CB with 3CD | 21 October 2026 — extended from 30 September by Circular 7/2026 |
| Return of income, audit cases | 21 November 2026 — extended from 31 October by Circular 7/2026 |
| Transfer pricing report, where applicable | 31 October 2026 — not extended |
| Return where transfer pricing applies | 30 November 2026 — not extended |
| Belated return under Section 139(4) | 31 December 2026 |
| Revised return under Section 139(5) | 31 March 2027 — fee under new Section 234-I for revising late in the window: ₹1,000 if income ≤ ₹5 lakh, else ₹5,000 |
The 31 August date is statutory and permanent, and it applies to this year.
The Finance Act 2026 substituted Explanation 2 to Section 139(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 with effect from 1 March 2026, replacing the single 31 July date with a four-tier table:
| Person | Due date |
|---|
| Where transfer pricing under Section 92E applies | 30 November |
| Company, or assessee whose accounts require audit, or partner of such a firm | 31 October |
| Business or profession income, accounts not requiring audit | 31 August |
| Any other assessee | 31 July |
Because the amendment took effect on 1 March 2026, it governs AY 2026-27 — the year being filed now. It is a statutory change, not a departmental extension, so it recurs every year rather than lapsing.
The same structure has been carried into the new code: the Finance Act 2026 substituted an identical table in Section 263(1)(c) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 for tax year 2026-27 onwards, reading Section 172 in place of Section 92E. So the position is the same under both Acts, and will not change when the 2025 Act takes over.
What decides which row applies is audit liability under Section 44AB, not the form number. An ITR-3 filer liable to audit follows the 31 October row — 21 November this year, on the extension. Whether you are liable at all is the prior question, and it is not only about turnover: does my business need a tax audit this year walks the Section 44AB limbs, including the Section 44AD history that settles it before any turnover test.
Extensions are sometimes granted by the Board close to a deadline, as this year's
was — two days before the date it moved. Planning around one is still a poor
strategy: it is announced too late to be of use to anyone who was relying on it,
its scope is decided by the Board and not by who needs it, and this year's
extension left transfer pricing cases exactly where they were.
The thresholds under Section 44AB:
- Business — turnover exceeding ₹1 crore, extended to ₹10 crore where cash receipts and cash payments are each 5% or less of the total. Most businesses operating digitally satisfy that test comfortably.
- Profession — gross receipts exceeding ₹50 lakh. This is a flat limit; the digital-receipts relaxation that raises the business threshold does not apply to it.
- Presumptive opt-out — a taxpayer who used Section 44AD and then declares income below the presumptive rate, while exceeding the basic exemption limit, can be brought into audit. The presumptive taxation guide sets out that trap and the five-year lock-in that goes with it.
Applicability is decided on the numbers rather than assumed from last year — a business that was outside the threshold in the previous year can be inside it now. The audit and assurance page covers the wider position, including statutory and internal audit.
Section 271B provides a penalty of 0.5% of total sales, turnover or gross receipts, capped at ₹1,50,000.
Two points are worth knowing:
It is not automatic. Section 273B allows the penalty to be dropped where there was reasonable cause. Serious illness, records seized in a search action, and delay attributable to a previous auditor have been accepted in practice. But reasonable cause must be pleaded and evidenced — it is not applied on its own.
File the report even if you are late. The audit report and the return are separate obligations. Getting the report on record limits exposure under 271B even where the return slips, and treating them as one deadline is a common and costly error.
Separately, a return filed after the due date loses the ability to carry forward business losses, which for a loss-making year is frequently a larger consequence than the penalty itself.
From tax year 2026-27 the consequence changes shape entirely. Under the Income-tax Act 2025, audit is Section 63, and failing to get accounts audited and furnish the report stops being a discretionary penalty and becomes a graded fee under Section 428(c) — ₹75,000 where the failure runs up to one month, and ₹1,50,000 thereafter. A parallel fee under Section 428(d) applies to the accountant's report under Section 172 (₹50,000, then ₹1,00,000).
That is a materially different regime. The 0.5%-of-turnover formula is gone, so a small business no longer benefits from the percentage cap being lower than the ceiling — a one-month slip is ₹75,000 regardless of turnover. And because it is a fee rather than a penalty, the Section 273B "reasonable cause" relief that applies to the 271B penalty does not obviously carry across. For AY 2026-27, though, the 1961 Act still governs and Section 271B is the correct provision.
After your auditor uploads the report, you must accept it from your own login on the e-filing portal. An uploaded report sitting unaccepted is not filed, and the deadline keeps running.
This is among the most common reasons a report completed well before the deadline is nonetheless treated as late. Check the acceptance status yourself rather than assuming that upload concluded the matter.
The audit stalls on the same items every year. Having these ready compresses the timeline materially:
Books and financials
- Trial balance, profit and loss account and balance sheet for FY 2025-26
- Ledgers, cash book and bank book
- Last year's audited financials and tax audit report
- Fixed asset register with additions, deletions and depreciation working
Third-party confirmations
- Bank statements for the full year, all accounts, with reconciliations
- Closing stock statement with the basis of valuation
- Debtor and creditor balances, with confirmations where material
- Loan statements and interest certificates
Tax records
- GST returns for the year and reconciliation of GST turnover with books
- TDS returns filed, challans, and Form 26AS
- Advance tax and self-assessment tax challans
- Details of any related-party transactions
Specific to Form 3CD clauses
- Cash payments above the permitted limit, if any
- Loans and deposits accepted or repaid otherwise than by banking channel
- Payments to related parties
- Amounts disallowable for TDS default
- Employee contributions to provident and other welfare funds, with actual deposit dates
That last one deserves attention. Employee contributions deposited after the due date under the relevant labour law are disallowed, and the position has been settled against taxpayers. It is examined every year, and the deposit dates should be reconciled before the auditor raises them rather than after.
GST turnover against books. Differences are normal — GST turnover includes items that books treat differently, and the treatment of exports, credit notes and schemes creates genuine gaps. What matters is that each difference is explained and documented rather than discovered mid-audit.
If the two do not tie and no one can say why, the audit slows down and the difference becomes a question in every subsequent proceeding, because both figures sit in the department's own data.
The same set of financials usually has a second job. Where a facility is being renewed or applied for, the bank will want a CMA project report for a bank loan drawn from these figures — and a lender comparing your CMA against your filed turnover will notice any gap just as readily as an officer would.
| Concept | 1961 Act | 2025 Act |
|---|
| Books of account | 44AA | 62 |
| Tax audit | 44AB | 63 |
| Presumptive taxation | 44AD, 44ADA, 44AE | 58 (consolidated) |
| Return filing | 139 | 263 |
Audits for FY 2025-26 remain under the 1961 Act. Form and rule numbering is being revised for the new regime, so the applicable forms for a later year should be confirmed rather than carried over. The section mapping guide covers the wider renumbering.
For a trader the audit question turns on a turnover figure that is not the one the broker's statement puts in front of you, and is usually a small fraction of it — see the number that triggers an audit.
Due dates and thresholds are stated for AY 2026-27 and can be varied by the Board. Whether audit applies in a particular case depends on the figures and the nature of the activity, and should be confirmed against them.