Which ITR form applies to your business — and by when

Short answer: the form follows the entity and how income is computed; the deadline follows whether audit applies. For FY 2025-26, non-audit filers of ITR-3 and ITR-4 have until 31 August 2026 — a permanent change made by the Finance Act 2026 — while audit cases run to 31 October 2026.

The dates first, because one is close

The 31 August date is a permanent amendment to Section 139(1) made by the Finance Act 2026, not a circular extension — it applies from AY 2026-27 onward.

The trap in reading that table: the form does not decide the date. Audit liability does. An ITR-3 filer who is liable to audit under Section 44AB follows 31 October; an ITR-3 filer who is not follows 31 August. So the first question is not which form, but whether tax audit applies.

The forms

Working it out

Start with the entity.

• Company → ITR-6. A company is outside the presumptive scheme entirely, and its statutory audit under the Companies Act is a separate obligation from tax audit under Section 44AB — a company crossing the 44AB threshold needs both.
• LLP → ITR-5. LLPs cannot use Section 44AD, so ITR-4 is not available to them however small the turnover. This catches people who assume an LLP is treated like a partnership firm for this purpose; it is not.
• Partnership firm → ITR-5, or ITR-4 where it is declaring presumptively and meets the conditions.
• Individual or HUF → continue below.

For an individual or HUF, the question is how income is computed.

• Declaring on the presumptive basis under 44AD, 44ADA or 44AE, and within ITR-4's conditions → ITR-4.
• Business or professional income computed in the ordinary way, or presumptive income where some other factor takes you outside ITR-4 → ITR-3.
• No business or professional income at all → ITR-1 or ITR-2, depending on the sources.

Whether presumptive is the right election in the first place — and the five-year consequence of leaving it — is a separate question, covered in Section 44AD or regular books.

What takes you out of ITR-4

ITR-4 is narrower than its popularity suggests. Common reasons a presumptive filer must use ITR-3 instead:

• Total income exceeding the limit prescribed for the form
• Being a non-resident or not ordinarily resident
• Holding foreign assets or having foreign income — including RSUs or other employer stock, which brings the Schedule FA disclosure covered in the Schedule FA guide
• Being a director in a company, or holding unlisted equity shares
• Income from more than one house property
• Capital gains in the year
• Having brought-forward or current-year losses to carry forward

Several of these are common in exactly the group that assumes ITR-4 is the simple option. A consultant with employer stock, or a proprietor who is also a director, is generally an ITR-3 filer.

Why the wrong form matters

A return filed on the wrong form can be treated as defective under Section 139(9). A notice issues requiring the defect to be cured, generally within 15 days of intimation, and an uncured defect can result in the return being treated as never filed.

The consequences of that are worse than they first appear: carried-forward losses are lost, and late-filing consequences follow even though you filed within the deadline. Filing on time on the wrong form is not a neutral error.

Common combinations

Under the Income-tax Act 2025

Returns for AY 2026-27 remain under the 1961 Act. Form numbering and the rules prescribing them are being revised for the 2025 Act regime, so the applicable form for a later year should be confirmed rather than carried across. The section mapping guide covers the wider renumbering.

Trading income needs one step before the form question can be answered: intraday and derivatives are different heads with different loss rules, and have to be separated first. That, and the turnover figure behind the audit test, are in F&O and intraday turnover.

Before the first return there is usually a registration backlog to clear. For a Karnataka business the one most often missed is shops and establishments registration, which runs from the day you commenced.

Due dates are stated for AY 2026-27 and can be varied by the Board. The correct form depends on the entity, the sources of income and the basis of computation, and should be confirmed against them before filing.