Circular No. 6/2025 — Extension of due date for furnishing…

What this is

Circular No. 6/2025 was issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes on 27 May 2025. Its subject is Extension of due date for furnishing return of income 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 due date for furnishing the return of income for assessment year 2025-26 from 31 July 2025 to 15 September 2025. The extension is given under section 119 and applies to assessees covered by clause (c) of Explanation 2 to section 139(1), that is, the non-audit class whose date is otherwise 31 July.

Why it was issued

The Board exercised its section 119 power to relieve the ordinary 31 July filers; the circular itself gives no reason beyond that.

Who it reaches

Individuals and other non-audit assessees whose return date for assessment year 2025-26 was 31 July 2025
Salaried taxpayers filing for assessment year 2025-26
Tax practitioners handling the July filing season

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. 225/205/2024/ITA-II Government of India Ministry of Finance Department of Revenue Central Board of Direct Taxes Circular No. 06/2025 New Delhi, dated 27th May, 2025 Subject: Extension of due date for furnishing return of income 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'), extends the due date of furnishing of Return of Income under sub-section (1) of section 139 of the Act for the Assessment Year 2025-26 in the case of assessees referred in clause (c) of Explanation 2 to sub-section (1) of section 139 of the Act, which is 3 pt July, 2025 to 15th September, 2025. (Dr. Castro Jayaprakash.T) Under 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/CsIT, CBDT. 6. Directors/Deputy Secretaries/Under Secretaries of CBDT. 7. 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 publicize 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 mard il. (Dr. Castro Jayaprakash.T) Under Secretary to the Government of India

What to watch

The extension reaches only the clause (c) class — audit cases and transfer pricing cases keep their own dates.
This is a one-time extension whose date, 15 September 2025, has passed; the circular is spent.
Extending the return date does not by itself displace interest for late payment of tax; the circular says nothing about interest.

Where you meet it

When testing whether an assessment year 2025-26 return was filed in time — for late fee under section 234F, for carry-forward of losses, or in an intimation under section 143(1).

What it names

It mentions. Circular No. 06/2025

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. 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. 5/2025 — Circular No. f)"" /2025 28 March 2025

← Circular No. 7/2025 · Circular No. 5/2025 →

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.