Circular No. 2/2025 — Extension of due date for filing…

What this is

Circular No. 2/2025 was issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes on 18 February 2025. Its subject is Extension of due date for filing of form no. 56F under the income tax act 1961.

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 date for filing the accountant's report in Form No. 56F for assessment year 2024-25. The report required under sub-section (8) of section 10AA read with sub-section (5) of section 10A may be filed up to 31 March 2025 instead of the specified date under section 44AB. The extension is given under section 119(2)(b).

Why it was issued

Taxpayers and other stakeholders reported difficulties in filing the accountant's report in time, and the Board acted to avoid genuine hardship.

Who it reaches

Units in a special economic zone claiming deduction under section 10AA for assessment year 2024-25
Assessees whose Form No. 56F went in after the section 44AB specified date
Accountants certifying the deduction

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.10A	no counterpart recorded
s.10AA	s.144
s.44AB	s.2, s.58, s.63
s.119	s.239

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. 300173/1112025-ITA-I
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Direct Taxes
(IT A-I Division)
Circular No. 2. 12025
.p\
Dated the 13 February, 2025
Sub: Extension of due date for filing of Form No. 56F under the Income-tax Act, 1961- reg.

On consideration of difficulties reported by the taxpayers and other stakeholders in timely filing of report of accountant required to be filed under sub-section (8) of section 10AA read with sub-section (5) of section 10A of the Income-tax Act, 1961 ('the Act') and with a view to avoid genuine hardship to such cases, the Central Board of Direct taxes, in exercise of its powers under section 119(2)(b) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, hereby extends the due date of filing of report of the accountant as required to be filed under sub-section (8) of section 10AA read with sub-section (5) of section 10A of the Act, for Assessment year 2024-25 from the specified date under section 44AB of the Act to 31.03.2025.

(AsIiwani ~ Kumar)
Under Secretary to the Govt. of India

Copy to:
1. PS to FMlOSD to FMIPS to MoS (R)/OSD to MoS(R)
2. PS to Revenue Secretary
3. Chairman, CBDT & All Members, CBDT
4. All Principal Chief Commissioners oflncome-tax I Principal Director Generals oflncome-tax.
5. DGIT(Systems), New Delhi
6. All Joint Secretaries/CsIT, CBDT
7, Web Manager, 0/0 DGIT(Systems) with request to upload on the departmental website of incometaxindia. gov .in.
8. Commissioner oflncome-tax (Media & TP) and official Spokesperson, CBDT, New Delhi.
9. JCIT, Data-Base Cell for uploading on irsofficersonline.gov.in
10. Guard File

What to watch

The relief is for assessment year 2024-25 only; another year is not covered.
It moves the date for Form No. 56F alone and does not touch the return date or the tax audit report.
The extended date, 31 March 2025, has passed, so the window is closed and the circular now serves only to defend a report filed within it.
Filing the report late but within the extension does not cure any other failure of condition under section 10AA.

Where you meet it

Where a deduction under section 10AA for assessment year 2024-25 is denied in processing or assessment because Form No. 56F was not filed by the section 44AB specified date.

What it names

Forms it names. Form No. 56F

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. 16/2020 — F .No .370142/35/2019-TPL-Pt 30 August 2020
Circular No. 12/ 2014 — Section 10A, read with section 10AA of the Income-tax Act, 1961 - Free Trade Zone - Clarification on Allowability of Ded 18 July 2014
Circular 7/DV/2013, dated 16-7-2013 — Section 10A, read with Sections 10AA & 10B of the Income-tax Act, 1961 - Free Trade Zone - Clarification on Issues Relat 16 July 2013
Press Release, dated 17-1-2013 — Clarification Regarding issues Relating to Export of Computer Software- Direct TAX Incentives 17 January 2013
Circular 1/2013 — Issues relating to export of computer software direct tax benefits clarification 17 January 2013
Circular No. 5/2010, dated 03-06-2010 — Circular No. 05 /2010 3 June 2010

← Circular No. 3/2025 · Circular No. 1/2025 →

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.