Circular No. 20/2022 — Extension of due date for furnishing return of income for the assessment year 2022 23

What this is

Circular No. 20/2022 was issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes on 26 October 2022. Its subject is Extension of due date for furnishing return of income for the assessment year 2022 23.

This is an extension of time. It moves a date that the Act or the Rules otherwise fix, and it does so only for the compliance and the period it names — not for anything else that happens to fall due at the same time.

What it does

Moves the return filing date for assessment year 2022-23 from 31 October 2022 to 7 November 2022 for assessees covered by clause (a) of Explanation 2 to section 139(1), that is, those whose accounts are required to be audited. It follows the extension of the audit report dates to 7 October 2022 by Circular No. 19/2022 dated 30 September 2022.

Why it was issued

The date for furnishing the various audit reports had already been extended to 7 October 2022, and the return date is moved in consequence so that the gap between the audit report and the return is preserved.

Who it reaches

Assessees whose accounts are audited and whose return date was 31 October 2022
Working partners of firms whose accounts are audited
Tax auditors filing reports under the extended 7 October 2022 date

The provisions it speaks to

Left, the provision of the Income-tax Act, 1961 as the instrument itself names it. Right, the section of the Income-tax Act, 2025 that the department’s own concordance maps it to — which is where the same ground is now covered.

Under the 1961 Act	Now
s.119	s.239
s.139	s.2, s.263, s.349

The instrument, as the Board published it

The department publishes this one only as a PDF, so the words below were read out of that PDF by machine. That reading can carry its own mistakes — a misread number, a broken line. Check the signed document before you rely on a figure in it.

F. No. 225/49/2021f1TA-1l
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Direct Taxes
*****
Circular No. 2012022
New Delhi, dated 26th October 2022
Subject: - Extension of due date for furnishing return of income for the Assessment Year 2022-23- reg.

In consequence to extension of due date for various reports of audit in the case of assessees referred in clause (a) of Explanation 2 to sub-section (I) of section 139 of the Act to 071h October 2022 by Circular No. 19/2022 dated 30.09.2022, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), in exercise of its powers under Section 119 of the Income-tax Act,1961 (Act), extends the due date of furnishing of Return of Income under sub-section (1) of section 139 of the Act for the Assessment Year 2022-23, which is 31 st October 2022 in the case of assessees referred in clause (a) of Explanation 2 to sub-section (I) of section 139 of the Act, to 071h November, 2022.

SdI-
(Ravinder Maini)
Director to the Government of India

Copy to:
1. PS to FM.! PS to MoS (F).
2. PS to Revenue Secretary.
3. Chaimlan (CBDT)& All Members ofCBDT.
4. All Pro CCsIT/CCsITlPr. DGslTIDGsIT.
5. All loint Secretaries/CsIT, CBDT.
6. DirectorslDeputy SecretariesfUnder Secretaries of CBDT.
7. Web Manager, with a request to place the order on official Income-tax website.
8. CIT (M&TP), Official Spokesperson ofCBDT with a request to publicize widely.
9. lCTT. Data Base Cell for placing it on irsofficersonline.gov.in.
10. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, IP Estate. New Delhi.
11. All Chambers of Commerce.
12. The Guard File.

~\o '2.o:n .. (Ravinder Maini)
Director to the Government of India

What to watch

The extension reaches only clause (a) of Explanation 2 to section 139(1); the transfer pricing date under clause (aa) is untouched.
Nothing is said about interest under section 234A, which runs on its own terms.
The extended date of 7 November 2022 has long passed and the circular is spent, surviving only as authority for a return filed in that window.
It is the return date alone that moves; the audit report date came from Circular No. 19/2022, not from this one.

Where you meet it

When a section 143(1) intimation or a penalty or interest computation treats an assessment year 2022-23 audit-case return filed in early November 2022 as belated.

What it names

It mentions. Circular No. 19/2022

On the same provision

Other instruments in this library that name the same provision of the 1961 Act. They are not necessarily still operative, and a later one may have replaced an earlier one without saying so.

Circular No. 6/2026 — Condonation of delay in filing Form No. 10AB electronically for approval under clause(ii) of the first proviso to sectio 2 July 2026
Circular No. 2/2026 — Order under section 119 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 for extension of timeline for issuance of tax deducted at source (TD 25 March 2026
Circular No.15/2025 — Extension of timelines for filing of various reports of audit and income tax returns ITRS for the assessment year 2025 2 29 October 2025
Circular No. 10/2025 — Relaxation of time limit for processing of returns of income filed electronically which were incorrectly invalidated by 28 July 2025
Circular No. 7/2025 — Relaxation of time limit for processing of valid returns of income filed electronically pursuant to order u/s 119(2)(b) 25 June 2025
Circular No. 6/2025 — Extension of due date for furnishing return of income for the Assessment Year 2025-26 27 May 2025

← Circular No. 21/2022 · Circular No. 19/2022 →

A circular binds the department, not you and not a court. The Board issues a circular to its own officers. An assessee may hold the department to a circular that helps him; the department cannot hold an assessee to one that hurts him, and the Tribunal and the courts decide the law for themselves.

Source: the Income Tax Department’s own published text — its page for this instrument.