Income Tax Audit Report Due Date 2025 – Know Your Deadline

Have you ever sat in late on a Friday, sipping chai, staring at spreadsheets and ledger lines, and thought: “Is this audit thing going to finish in time?” I’ve been there. The world of tax audits under the Income‑tax Act, 1961 can feel like a never-ending maze of deadlines and forms. One slip: a report filed a day late. Suddenly you’re looking at penalties you didn’t budget.
If you run a business (or are the accountant for one), knowing when your audit report must be submitted isn’t just a checklist item—it’s peace of mind. So, let’s unpack the “income tax audit report due date” in India with real clarity, stories, and practical insight.

Table of Contents

What is the audit report due date (and why it matters)

In India, certain taxpayers must get their accounts audited under Section 44AB of the Income-tax Act. The auditor issues a “tax audit report” (forms like Form 3CA/3CB with Form 3CD) that must be filed electronically.
Why care? Because the audit report’s due date ties into your return-filing date. If the audit isn’t done (or the report not furnished) by the due date, you risk penalty under Section 271B.

Here’s a little story: I remember a small manufacturing unit that missed the audit due date by just two days. The CA told them they now needed to write “reasonable cause” and still faced risk of penalty. The stress, the phone calls at night, the uncertainty—it could’ve been avoided.

What’s the current due date (FY 2024-25 / AY 2025-26)

Here’s the scoop for the assessment year 2025-26 (i.e., for accounts of FY 2024-25).
The original due date for the audit report for most audit-cases was 31 October 2025. But the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) extended it to 10 December 2025.
In other words: if you’re required to get a tax audit, your audit report now must be uploaded by 10 December 2025. And your ITR (income tax return) for business/ audit-cases typically follows by the same date.

Important nuance: If you’re a taxpayer not required to do audit, your ITR due date is different (e.g., non-audit cases extended to 15/16 September 2025).

So: for audit cases—report by 31 Oct 2025. If you miss it? Not good.

Who needs to file the audit report (so you know if this applies to you)
You don’t automatically need to file a tax-audit report. The criteria under Section 44AB: if your business turnover or profession receipts exceed prescribed limits, or you opt for certain provisions, or if you have specified domestic/international transactions (transfer pricing) etc.
For instance: if your turnover crosses ₹1 crore (or ₹10 lakh in case of profession) in a financial year (with some exceptions and caveats) you might be in audit‐zone.
A quick story: A start-up I spoke to thought “we’re small, under turnover limit” so they skipped audit prep early. Only in late July they realised the threshold they crossed, and suddenly the audit had to be rushed in 2 months. Avoid that scramble.

What happens if you miss the due date (penalties, consequences)

Missing the audit report due date is serious. Under Section 271B the penalty can be whichever is less of (i) 0.5% of total sales/turnover/gross receipts or (ii) ₹1,50,000 (for many cases).
Moreover: Your ITR can’t be considered valid or complete if the audit report is not filed (in audit-applicable cases). There can be delays in refunds, inability to carry forward certain losses or deductions, and increased risk of scrutiny.
Another story: I met an accountant whose client missed the due date. The CA could still file an audit report “late” but the client had to explain “reasonable cause” and still got called by the department — all because what seemed like a small delay became a compliance headache.

Read Next: What are the new Tax Slabs for 2025?

Practical checklist (so you don’t freak out on deadline day)

Early July (or earlier): check whether you are required to undergo audit (turnover, receipts, profession etc).
By August: appoint your CA, share books of accounts, get the audit process rolling.
Early September: start submitting interim working papers, resolve queries, ensure that the e-filing utility (common offline/online) for Forms 3CA/3CB/3CD is updated. (Note: utility glitches were one of the reasons for extensions.)
By end September (or earlier): aim to finalise the audit report so CA can upload before 31 December 2025 (for FY 2025-26) unless further extension happens.
Right after audit report filing: file your ITR by the due date. For audit-cases usually the ITR date is the same (or tied) to the audit report date.
Document reasons if you’re late: technical glitches, natural calamity, etc. A “reasonable cause” letter may help.
Maintain robust records: ledgers, bank statements, bills etc. Because not just the date—but accuracy matters for audit.

For AY 2025–26 (FY 2024–25), CBDT has officially extended the “specified date” for furnishing the tax audit report to 10 November 2025 and the ITR due date for audit cases to 10 December 2025. This is stated in CBDT’s press release dated 29 October 2025, which explicitly says the audit report date—first pushed to 31 Oct—has been further extended to 10 Nov 2025, and the ITR due date to 10 Dec 2025.
Income Tax India

Economic Times and Times of India both note the audit report deadline is now 10 Nov 2025 and audit-ITR is 10 Dec 2025, referencing the CBDT move that followed recent High Court interventions.

Transfer Pricing (Form 3CEB under section 92E) wasn’t separately extended in that CBDT note. Practitioners are pointing out that TP cases may still sit at the 31 Oct / 30 Nov track unless CBDT issues a distinct TP-specific order, which, as of now, hasn’t surfaced in the official press pages. So if you’re a TP case, treat those earlier TP dates seriously until a discrete notification says otherwise.

The emotional/operational side of running a business while juggling audit deadlines. They list deadlines, forms, penalty amounts. But few talk about how firms scramble when the portal is slow, how your CA is overloaded, how getting data in late can pull everything down. I’ve spoken to audit firms that say the “end-of-Sept crunch” gets worse each year because businesses wait. The extension to 31 October is relief—but it’s not free time.

Also: The audit-form changes (especially updates to Form 3CD clauses) for AY 2025-26 impose new disclosures (e.g., MSME payments, purchase from specified persons) that earlier templates didn’t emphasise. If you default to “last year’s process”, you risk re-work, delay, and stress.

Another gap: Many pages don’t emphasise the link to ITR filing properly—i.e., audit report must be done before you file ITR (or the ITR will be rejected) in audit-cases. That inter-dependency matters. I make sure you see it here.

Conclusion

So, here’s the takeaway: If you’re in the audit zone, treat 31 December 2025 (for FY 2025-26) as your sharp deadline for the audit report—unless you get a further official extension. Don’t wait until the last week. Start early. Get your CA plugged in. Solve data issues ahead of time. Because once you’re chasing – doing ledger queries at midnight, battling portal glitches, scrambling for signatures – the cost (in stress, penalty, reputation) is much higher than the extra prep you could’ve done early.

I remember finishing one audit on 10 Dec just as the CA uploaded the report at 11:57 pm. The relief? Priceless. The mess before? Totally avoidable. Let your business sail past the deadline calmly.

You’ve got this. And the date is not just a number—it’s your compliance anchor. Set it, and don’t drift.