Circular No.15/2025

Extension of timelines for filing of various reports of audit and income tax returns ITRS for the assessment year 2025 26

What this is

Circular No.15/2025 was issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes on 29 October 2025. Its subject is Extension of timelines for filing of various reports of audit and income tax returns ITRS for the assessment year 2025 26.

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

Extends the return date for the audit class for assessment year 2025-26. For assessees within clause (a) of Explanation 2 to sub-section (1) of section 139, the due date for furnishing the return for the previous year 2024-25 moves from 31 October 2025 to 10 December 2025. As a consequence, the specified date for furnishing the report of audit under any provision of the Act for that previous year stands extended to 10 November 2025, in terms of clause (ii) of the Explanation to section 44AB. The extension is under section 119.

Why it was issued

The circular gives no reason beyond the Board's exercise of its section 119 power.

Who it reaches

Companies and other audit-case assessees filing for assessment year 2025-26
Working partners of firms whose accounts are audited, within the same clause (a) class
Auditors furnishing tax audit and other audit reports for the previous year 2024-25

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.44AB	s.2, s.58, s.63
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. 225/131/2025/ITA-II
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Direct Taxes
Circular No.15/2025
*****
New Delhi, dated 1st October, 2025
Subject: - Extension of timelines for filing of various reports of audit and Income Tax
Returns (ITRs) for the Assessment Year 2025-26- reg.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), in exercise of its powers under Section
119 of the Income-tax Act,1961 (the Act), hereby extends the due date for furnishing Income
Tax Return (ITR) for the Previous Year 2024-25 (Assessment Year 2025-26) for the assessees
referred in clause (a) of Explanation 2 to sub-section (1) of section 139 of the Act, from 31st
October, 2025 to 10th December, 2025. Consequently, the specified date for furnishing of
report of audit under the provisions of the Act for the Previous Year 2024-25 (Assessment Year
2025-26) shall stand extended to 10th November, 2025 in terms of clause (ii) of Explanation to
section 44AB of the Income-tax Act,1961.

(Dr. Indu Bala)
Deputy Secretary to the Government of India

Copy to:
1. PS to F.M./ PS to MoS (F).
2. PS to Revenue Secretary.
3. Chairman (CBDT)& All Members of CBDT.
4. All Pr. CCsIT/CCsIT/Pr. DGsIT/DGsIT.
5. All Joint Secretaries/Commissioners, CBDT.
6. Directors/Deputy Secretaries/Under Secretaries of CBDT.
7. A. Web Manager, with a request to place the order on official Income-tax website.
8. CIT (M&TP), Official Spokesperson of CBDT with a request to publicise widely.
9. JCIT, 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.

(Dr. Indu Bala)
Deputy Secretary to the Government of India

What to watch

The two dates do not move together: the return goes to 10 December 2025 but the audit report only to 10 November 2025, a month apart.
The audit report date moves as a consequence of the return date through clause (ii) of the Explanation to section 44AB, which defines the specified date by reference to it.
The extension reaches the clause (a) class only — a transfer pricing assessee within clause (aa) keeps his own date.
Extending the filing date does not displace interest under section 234A where it is otherwise attracted, nor the liability to pay tax.

Where you meet it

When testing whether an assessment year 2025-26 return or tax audit report was in time, on interest under section 234A, a fee under section 234F or a penalty under section 271B.

What it names

It mentions. Circular No. 15/2025

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. 2/2025 — Extension of due date for filing of form no. 56F under the income tax act 1961 18 February 2025
Circular No. 18/2023 — Circular No. 1 g of 2023 20 October 2023
Circular No. 5/2021 — Order under section 119 of the income tax act 1961 25 March 2021
Circular No. 19/2020 — Condonation of delay under section 119 2 b of the income tax act 1961 in filing of form no. 10BB for assessment year 201 3 November 2020
Circular No. 10/2020 — Order under section 119 of the income tax act 1961 regarding reporting requirement under clause 30C and clause 44 of the 24 April 2020
Circular No. 9/2019 — ( F. No. 370142/9/2018-TPL 14 May 2019

← Circular No. 1/2026 · Circular No. 14/2025 →

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.