Tax Audit Due Date for AY 2026-27, and Every Extension Since AY 2018-19

It was extended. By Circular No. 07/2026 of 28 September 2026, CBDT moved the tax audit report for AY 2026-27 from 30 September to 21 October 2026, and the return for audit cases from 31 October to 21 November 2026.

Read the circular closely, because it moves less than people assume. It extends the return date "for the persons referred in sl.no.2 of the table below Explanation 2 to sub-section (1) of section 139", and the report date follows "consequently". Serial 3 — the transfer-pricing cases under section 92E — is not mentioned, and has not moved.

Every September brings two questions: will it be extended, and should the work be planned as if it will. This year answered the first on the second-to-last day. The record below answers the second, and it answers it the same way every year.

What moved, and what did not

• The audit report, in ordinary audit cases: 30 September becomes 21 October 2026.
• The return, in ordinary audit cases: 31 October becomes 21 November 2026.
• Transfer-pricing cases under section 92E: the return stays at 30 November 2026 and the report at 31 October 2026, both unchanged. The circular moves only serial 2 of the table, and section 92E cases sit at serial 1 — a firm that reads "extended" and plans the 3CEB work around it will be late.

The circular was issued under section 119 of the 1961 Act "read with section 536 of the Income-tax Act, 2025" — the savings provision of the new Act, which is how a 1961-Act power still reaches an assessment year that straddles the change.

Where 30 September came from

Section 44AB of the Income-tax Act, 1961 requires the audit report to be furnished by the specified date, which its Explanation defines as one month before the due date for the return under section 139(1). For companies and for persons whose accounts must be audited, that return is due on 31 October, so the report is due on 30 September.

This year's report is still a 1961 Act report. The audit is of the previous year 2025-26, and CBDT's FAQs on the new audit form say Forms 3CA, 3CB and 3CD continue for assessment years up to AY 2026-27. Form No. 26, under section 63 of the Income-tax Act, 2025, starts with tax year 2026-27, and FAQ 5 keeps the same rule for it: one month before the return date under section 263(1).

Nine seasons, one scale

What the record says

Take out the two pandemic years, AY 2020-21 and AY 2021-22, when the dates moved first under the relaxation law and then by circular, and six ordinary seasons remain between AY 2018-19 and AY 2025-26.

• The date was extended in five of the six. AY 2023-24 was the exception. The tax audit date held; the relief CBDT gave that month, by Circular No. 16/2023, was for Forms 10B and 10BB.
• The first announcement always came in the last week. It came 6 days before the deadline in 2018 (the order of 24 September) and 3 days before in 2019 (27 September). In 2022 it came on the day itself: Circular No. 19/2022 is dated 30 September, and PIB carried it at 10:15 pm. In 2024 Circular No. 10/2024 is dated 29 September and PIB carried it on 30 September. In 2025 it came 5 days before, on 25 September.
• How far it moved varied. A week in 2022 and 2024, a month in 2018 and 2019, and 41 days in 2025, when a second extension on 29 October took the date to 10 November 2025. This year it moved 21 days, announced 2 days before the deadline.

In the ordinary years, no extension has been announced more than 6 days before the deadline. This year it came on 28 September, for a date of 30 September.

The pandemic years were different in kind. For AY 2021-22 the first extension came on 20 May 2021, by Circular No. 9/2021, and two more followed, ending at 15 February 2022.

The reasons given

The releases state their reasons, and they vary. In 2025 CBDT cited representations about floods and natural calamities and noted that the matter had come up before High Courts, while saying in the same release that the e-filing portal was working and that 4,02,000 tax audit reports had been uploaded by the close of 24 September. The releases for 2022 and 2024 speak of difficulties reported by taxpayers and other stakeholders in filing the reports. The January 2022 release cited COVID and difficulties in electronic filing.

What an extension does not change

• The penalty provision behind the date. Under section 271B, failing to get the accounts audited or to furnish the report can attract a penalty of one-half per cent of turnover or gross receipts, capped at ₹1,50,000, and section 273B protects a person who shows reasonable cause.
• Interest on the return, unless the order says otherwise. When the date was extended in 2018, CBDT's release said returns filed within the extended date would still attract interest under section 234A. Read each year's circular for exactly what it moves.

This year's form is still 3CD

For AY 2026-27 the report is Form 3CA or 3CB with Form 3CD, now due on 21 October 2026; the e-filing portal's common utility for them was last released on 2 April 2026. The move to Form No. 26 comes with tax year 2026-27, and the clause-by-clause differences are set out in Form 26 against Form 3CD.

Where an extension appears

An extension exists only as a CBDT order, circular or notification. It reaches the e-filing portal's latest news, the Ministry of Finance releases on the Press Information Bureau, and the circulars page of incometaxindia.gov.in. A representation, a news report or a forwarded message is not one.

Written on 12 September 2026, and updated on 7 October 2026 for Circular No. 07/2026.