Tax audit deadline approaches – CA groups ask for October 31 extension, here's what you should do

At the end of September, a flurry of accountants will be racing against the clock. The statutory deadline for filing tax‑audit reports for Assessment Year 2026‑27 – that is, for the financial year 2025‑26 – is set for 30 September 2026.

But a chorus of professional bodies – from the All India MSME and Tax Professionals Association to the Punjab Accountants Association and a host of regional tax‑consultant groups – have lodged a formal request with the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to push that date back by a month, to 31 October 2026. Their plea cites a mix of technical hiccups on the portal, a packed reconciliation workload and simply too little time to finish the job properly.

So far, the CBDT has stayed quiet. No fresh notification has been issued, which means, for the time being, 30 September remains the operative deadline.

What’s making the audit so painful?

Auditors today are wrestling with far more data than a few years ago. They have to line up numbers from GST returns, TDS/TCS statements, the AIS/TIS extracts and Form 26AS, then match those against bank statements, loan schedules, fixed‑asset registers and any related‑party dealings.

“We’re hitting three big walls at once,” explains Dinesh K. Jain, managing partner at Dinesh Aarjav & Associates. “First, the window is squeezed. Second, the portal keeps throwing tantrums – login failures, delayed OTPs, DSC errors, glitches when pulling AIS/TIS data. Third, the reconciliation itself is a grind.”

Any mismatch – even a small one – triggers a deeper dive, dragging the whole timeline out.

Has the new Income‑Tax Act changed anything?

The Income‑Tax Act of 2025 rolled out recently, but the audit for FY 2025‑26 and AY 2026‑27 still falls under the older 1961 Act. In short, the legislative shift does not move the September 30 cutoff.

There is, however, a precedent. When the deadline for FY 2024‑25 approached, the CBDT granted a one‑month extension, moving the filing date from 30 September 2025 to 31 October 2025. That relief, though, was announced well before the original deadline.

What should you, the taxpayer, be doing right now?

Don’t sit on your hands waiting for an official grace period. Start clearing the deck today. Here’s a quick‑and‑dirty checklist to keep you moving in the right direction:

• Reconcile your GST turnover with the GST returns you filed.
• Cross‑check AIS, TIS and Form 26AS entries against your books.
• Match every bank transaction and loan repayment with the ledger.
• Pull together fixed‑asset schedules, depreciation tables and related‑party invoices.
• Verify all TDS/TCS deductions – even the small ones.
• Make sure statutory dues (e.g., professional tax, service tax) are up to date.
• Identify any expenses that might be disallowed for tax purposes and note them.

Share these documents with your chartered accountant as early as possible. The sooner the auditor gets a complete picture, the less likely you’ll hit a bottleneck later.

Another tip that often slips through the cracks: once your CA uploads the audit report on the e‑filing portal, you still have to log in and give your electronic approval. That step can take a day or two, so factor it into your schedule.

In Jain’s words, “Work backward from 30 September, not toward it.” In practice, that means treating the deadline as a hard stop and planning all your milestones accordingly.

To sum up, unless the CBDT officially announces a new deadline, the 30 September 2026 date is what you have to meet. The extensions being sought are still pending, and while a decision could come later, the safest bet is to act as if the deadline will not move.

Stay organized, keep the lines of communication open with your accountant, and give yourself a buffer for that final electronic sign‑off. That way, even if an extension is granted at the eleventh hour, you’ll already be ahead of the game.