AI OCR 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (9) TMI 1511
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....n of India through the Ministry of Finance and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), to extend the statutory due date prescribed for furnishing of Tax Audit Reports (TARs) under Section 44AB of the Income-tax Act, 1961, on account of persistent technical impediments being faced on the e-filing portal. The petitioner-Tax Bar Association has also prayed that no coercive measures, including the levy of late fees or penalties on defaulter assessees, be imposed for failure to file or upload TARs in Forms 3CA-3CD and/or 3CB-3CD on the Income-Tax portal after the due date on account of technical glitches. It has been further prayed that in the event of the portal being non-functional, taxpayers be granted the liberty to furnish TARs either manually or via e-mail to the jurisdictional officer. 2.1. At the outset it has been clarified the relief presently being adjudicated upon by this Court is confined only to the extension of the specified date for filing of Tax Audit Reports (TARs). 3. Learned Senior Counsel, Mr. Vikas Balia, appearing on behalf of the petitioner, the Tax Bar Association, advanced the submission that all assessees, particularly those whose accounts are subject ....
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....s, however, no corresponding relief for assessees who are required to file their returns on or before 31st October 2025. (iii) Furthermore, the utility for Form 3CA-3CD and 3CB-3CD was released on 1st April, 2024 last year whereas this year, it was released only on 18th July, 2025. In this context, it may be noted that the "specified date under section 44AB i.e., 30th September, 2025, is the date one month prior to the due date for furnishing the return of income under section 139(1) i.e., 31 October, 2025. (iv) In this regard, reference is invited to the Taxpayer's Charter, which requires the taxpayer to be compliant and fulfil his compliance obligations and seek help of the department if needed for the said purpose. The Department, on its part, is committed to provide a fair and impartial system and resolve the tax issues in a time-bound manner. Thus, the Department is requested to assist the taxpayers to comply with their return-filing obligations under the income-tax law, in line with the Taxpayer Charter's assurance of impartiality and fairness. (v) Further, the legislature has intentionally prescribed distinct due dates under section 139(1) ....
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....lot of time even to login into the portal in order to be able to file returns and related forms. Many a times, the login fails too and the taxpayer is not able to even login again. Further, registration of new assessee / user also is a big challenge as many times registration of new assessee get rejected on the portal for reasons unknown. f) Annual Information System (AIS), Tax Information System of details updated in Annual (TIS) and Form No. 26AS: (i) The new system of AIS and TIS has added to the new set of verification and reconciliation of data by taxpayers. It is worth noting that in most of the cases, there is a lot of mismatch in the information reported in TIS as compared to the actual details and the same reported in Form No. 26AS as well. This has resulted in an additional burden on the taxpayers to reconcile the differences before filing the ITR in order to ensure that there are no further notices/unwarranted 143(1) adjustments and unnecessary hassles post filing of Income tax Returns. g) Other technical glitches persisting at income-tax portal related to furnishing of Tax Audit Report at Income-tax Portal: (i) Inoperativeness of the ....
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....024 18th July 2024 9. Form No. 3CB-3CD (for audit u/s 44AB) 23rd April 2024 18th July 2024 3.4. Learned counsel further submits that date of release of utility has reduced the uploading duration of audit reports for the aforesaid category, which are Form No.3CA-3CD for audit under Section 44AB and form No.3CB-3CD for audit under Section 44AB in both the financial year. 3.5. The counsel for the petitioner thus, submits that due to recurring technical glitches on the e-filing portal, assessees face undue hardship in filing Tax Audit Reports and therefore seeks extension of the statutory due date and such relief as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit. 4. In response, Mr. K.K. Bissa, learned counsel for the respondent submits that the due date for filing Tax Audit Reports (TARs) for any financial year, as prescribed under Section 44AB of the Income-Tax Act, 1961, is 30th September of the following year. This statutory timeline has been in place for an extended period, and taxpayers, including members of the petitioner Association, are well aware of their obligation to file TARs within the prescribed date. He further submits that repeated campaigns have been undertak....
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....507 3164 87342 18-Sep-202 45173 329 1897 47399 17-Sep-2024 43952 295 1912 46159 16-Sep-2024 52474 315 2365 55154 15-Sep-2024 29877 107 944 30928 4.4 Learned counsel further submits that the Income-Tax Department has ensured robust support mechanisms to facilitate taxpayers in meeting their compliance obligations. A 24/7 helpline has been activated and is fully functional until the due date to address any grievances or technical issues faced by taxpayers. He further submits that individual grievances raised through the Helpdesk, social media posts, or other channels have been promptly addressed, enabling successful filing of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) and TARs. 4.5 Learned counsel acknowledges that on 15th September, 2025, due to an unprecedented volume of 3.19 crore logins, there was some sluggishness in the system affecting a limited number of assessees, resulting in isolated instances where ITRs could not be filed. To address this, the department proactively extended the due date for ITR filing by one day, resulting in 23.60 lakh ITRs being filed on 16th September, 2025. However, no such large-scale issues hav....
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....nd 15,56,964 TARs were filed during the final week before the due date (i.e., 24th September to 30th September, 2024), aggregating to a total of 29,38,148 TARs. Furthermore, 5,42,439 TARs were filed during the extended period (1st October to 7th October, 2024), bringing the cumulative total for AY 2024-25 to 34,80,587 TARs. In stark contrast, for AY 2025- 26, as of 23rd September, 2025, with the due date of 30th September, 2025 imminent, only 2,73,367 TARs have been filed, indicating a substantial shortfall vis-à-vis the corresponding period in the preceding year. 5.1. This Court notes with concern the comparative filing status for AY 2024-25 and AY 2025-26. On 15th September, 2024, 30,928 TARs were filed for AY 2024-25, whereas only 1,069 TARs were filed for AY 2025-26 on the same date. Similarly, on 16th September, 2024, 55,154 TARs were filed, compared to only 4,079 TARs for AY 2025-26. On 22nd September, 2025, the filing figure for AY 2024-25 stood at 81,560 TARs, whereas for AY 2025-26, it was merely 32,425 TARs. The drastic reduction in filings for AY 2025-26, coupled with the delayed release of utilities, the limited number of TARs filed up to the last week, and th....
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....he introduction of AIS/TIS has led to additional reconciliation requirements. Several instances of mismatch with Form 26AS have been cited, creating apprehension of unwarranted adjustments under Section 143(1) and necessitating time- consuming reconciliations by taxpayers. (g) Other persistent technical glitches - These include non- operability of the "Audit Report Upload" functionality; denial of service due to heavy traffic; inability to access Form 29B utility (for MAT applicability); unavailability of past data; closure of grievances without actual resolution; and pendency of rectification requests. 7. This Court is of the considered view that the technical glitches highlighted by learned counsel for the petitioner, combined with the substantial shortfall in TAR filings for AY 2025- 26, as reflected in the figures furnished by the respondent's counsel, are likely to engender considerable chaos and may inadvertently result in widespread non-compliance by taxpayers with statutory requirements. 8. This Court is also mindful of the powers vested in the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) under Section 119 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, to issue general or special orde....