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| TL;DR Summary: ITR-6 is for companies. Not for trusts claiming exemption under Section 11. Non-audit companies file by 31 August 2026. Audit cases are filed by 31 October 2026. Transfer pricing cases filed by 30 November 2026. The tax audit report (Form 3CD) is due one month before the ITR, so 30 September 2026 for most audit cases. ITR-6 needs a digital signature. No exceptions. Missing the deadline costs you a late fee, interest, and your carry-forward losses. |
For all companies operating in India, the ITR-6 filing due date is a mandatory compliance deadline under the Income Tax Act. Missing this deadline triggers immediate financial penalties and long-term tax disability regarding carried-forward losses.
This post provides a clear breakdown of the applicable timelines, audit requirements, and filing steps. It will help you avoid errors, manage filing schedules, prevent digital signature issues, and ensure your tax audit report aligns with your income tax return.
Who Must File ITR-6 & Who’s Excluded
ITR-6 is the income tax return form meant specifically for companies registered under the Companies Act, 2013.
This includes:
- Private limited companies, both domestic and those with foreign shareholding
- Public limited companies, listed or unlisted
- One-person companies (OPCs)
- Section 8 companies that don’t claim exemption under Section 11
- Foreign companies that have income taxable in India
Your company files ITR-6 even if it did not commence business, has zero turnover, or is under the process of winding up. There’s no minimum income threshold that lets a company skip filing. As long as the entity exists on the Companies Act register, the return is due.
Who’s Excluded: Two Categories Don’t Use ITR-6:
Companies Claiming Exemption Under Section 11: If your company holds income from property for charitable or religious purposes and claims exemption under Section 11, you file ITR-7 instead.
This applies mainly to Section 8 companies operating as genuine non-profits, not commercial entities that happen to have a charitable clause somewhere in their memorandum.
Every Other Entity Type: LLPs file ITR-5, not ITR-6. This is especially for founders who convert a partnership or proprietorship into an LLP and assume company rules apply. Individuals, HUFs, and partnership firms have their own forms entirely.
Remember, your company income tax return filing obligation is separate from your obligation to file annual returns with the Registrar of Companies (ROC).
Filing AOC-4 and MGT-7 with the MCA does not substitute for filing ITR-6 with the Income Tax Department.
These are two different filings, two different portals, two different deadlines, and skipping one because you’ve done the other is a mistake we see often at PKC.
Another commonly overlooked requirement is that a company with a PAN must file a nil return even if it had no bank transactions throughout the financial year.
The moment your company is incorporated, the filing obligation starts; it doesn’t wait for business activity to begin.
If you’re unsure whether your entity structure requires ITR-6 or a different form, this is exactly the kind of question PKC Management Consulting’s tax advisory team fields regularly. Choosing the wrong form at the filing stage can lead to complications when submitting revised returns later.
ITR-6 Due Date For AY 2026-27 (Audit Vs. Non-Audit Companies)
The ITR 6 due date for AY 2026-27 depends on whether your company’s accounts require a tax audit under Section 44AB.
| Company category | ITR-6 due date AY 2026-27 |
| Non-audit companies (tax audit not applicable) | 31 October 2026 |
| Companies requiring a tax audit under Section 44AB | 31 October 2026 |
| Companies with international or specified domestic transactions (transfer pricing, Section 92E applicable) | 30 November 2026 |
Non-Audit Companies
If your total sales, turnover, or gross receipts did not exceed the prescribed threshold under Section 44AB (currently ₹1 crore or ₹10 crore, depending on the cash transactions), and you are not mandated under any other law to audit your books, your due date is earlier.
Due Date: October 31, 2026
Audit Companies
If your accounts are audited under the Companies Act (which covers nearly every private limited company regardless of turnover) or if you cross the income tax audit threshold, the deadline is extended by one month.
Due Date: October 31, 2026
Companies With International/ Domestic Transfer Pricing:
Companies that enter into specified domestic transactions or international transactions must file a transfer pricing audit report in Form 3CEB.
The deadline to file Form 3CEB is October 31, 2026.
However, filing 3CEB earlier does not shift the ITR-6 deadline. Your ITR-6 due date remains November 30, 2026, because a transfer pricing case still involves a tax audit under Section 44AB.
So, while you must get your 3CEB done by October 31, you have until November 30 to file ITR-6.
Due Date: November 30, 2026
A Practical Calendar
To avoid last-minute portal congestion, here is how you need to approach these dates:
- September 30, 2026: Statutory audit and tax audit should be substantially complete. You need a draft of the audit report and Form 3CD.
- October 15, 2026: Give final shape to all schedules. Rectify differences between accounting profit and taxable income.
- October 31, 2026: Deadline for Form 3CEB if applicable. Also a good self-imposed target for non-audit filers.
- November 15, 2026: Finalize ITR XML. Get DSC signatures validated. Upload.
- November 30, 2026: Hard deadline. After this, the late fee clock starts.
For the exact audit-linked deadlines relevant to your company this year, our Tax Audit Due Date AY 2026-27 calendar breaks down thresholds and dates by category.
Documents & Financial Statements Required Before Filing
ITR-6 requires you to type in numbers from finalized financial statements and the tax audit report. Gathering these documents beforehand prevents the back-and-forth that leads to errors.
Here is your pre-filing checklist:
Core Financials:
- Finalized Profit & Loss Account: You need gross receipts, operating expenses, depreciation, interest, directors’ remuneration, and net profit before tax. The P&L schedules in ITR-6 ask for itemized figures.
- Finalized Balance Sheet: Share capital breakdown, reserves and surplus, secured and unsecured loans, fixed assets block-wise, and current assets. The form asks for the exact closing balances.
- Notes to Accounts: These give you the breakup of other expenses, CSR spending details, and contingent liabilities. You need these to fill up quantitative details if applicable.
Tax Audit Specifics (If Applicable)
- Form 3CA/3CB and Form 3CD: The tax audit report. This is not just for uploading separately. You must manually populate specific items like payments exceeding limits under Section 43B, TDS defaults, or disallowances directly into the Part A of ITR-6.
- Fixed Asset Register: You need the block-wise breakup of assets as per the Income Tax Act, not just Companies Act depreciation. Mismatches here are a leading cause of queries.
Regulatory & Governance Papers
- Digital Signature Certificate (DSC): ITR-6 is filed only with a DSC. The DSC must be a Class 2 or 3 certificate, and it must be registered on the income tax e-filing portal. If the signing director or authorized signatory’s DSC has expired or its PAN is not linked, the upload fails.
- Board Resolution: The board must authorize a director or the company secretary to sign the return. Keep this scanned. While you don’t upload it, you need it for internal governance.
Bank and TDS Reconciliation:
- Bank Statements: For the entire financial year. You need to confirm that all receipts in the bank align with turnover reported.
- Form 26AS and AIS (Annual Information Statement): Compare every TDS entry and high-value transaction with your books. If AIS shows a share purchase you didn’t record, resolve it before filing. You must report income for all TDS entries. Cross-check every deducted amount against the applicable rates in our TDS rate chart for FY 2025-26 before reconciling with Form 26AS
Registration and Identity Documents:
- Company PAN and TAN
- Certificate of incorporation and CIN
- Director Identification Numbers (DIN) for all directors
- Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) of the authorised signatory mandatory, since ITR-6 cannot be verified through Aadhaar OTP or net banking the way individual returns can
For Companies with International Dealings
- Transfer pricing documentation and Form 3CEB, if you have international or specified domestic transactions with associated enterprises
- Foreign remittance details, if applicable
Many companies wait until the audit is nearly done to start pulling bank statements and GST reconciliations together, then discover mismatches between GST turnover and books turnover that need explaining before the return can go in.
Start this reconciliation the moment your financial year closes, not after your auditor asks for it.
Key Schedules In ITR-6 That Trip Up First-Time Filers
ITR-6 runs to dozens of schedules and most companies only need a fraction of them.
Here are the ones that cause the most confusion for a company filing for the first time or without dedicated tax support.
Schedule MAT and MAT Credit (MATC):
Minimum Alternate Tax under Section 115JB requires companies to pay tax on book profits if that amount exceeds tax computed under normal provisions.
Many first-time filers either skip this schedule entirely or calculate book profits incorrectly by not adding back the specific items Section 115JB requires.
If MAT was paid in an earlier year and normal tax now exceeds book-profit tax, you also need to correctly claim the MAT credit carried forward and miss this, and your company pays more tax than it owes.
Schedule BP (Computation Of Income From Business):
This schedule requires you to reconcile your profit as per the profit & loss (P&L) account with profit as computed under the Income Tax Act.
Additions for expenses that aren’t allowed, deductions for items allowed only after payment, and adjustments for differences in depreciation are all made here. If this reconciliation is incorrect, it affects every schedule that follows.
Schedule OI (Other Information):
This asks for details of amounts disallowed or inadmissible under Sections 40, 40A, 43B, and similar provisions things like unpaid statutory dues, cash payments above prescribed limits and TDS defaults.
Companies frequently under-report here simply because their finance team hasn’t flagged these items during the year.
Schedule DPM/DOA/DEP:
These cover depreciation on plant & machinery and other assets under the Income Tax Act’s block-of-assets method, which works differently from the Companies Act’s asset-wise depreciation.
If your fixed asset register does not track both sets of depreciation rates, you’ll have to rebuild the calculations during tax filing instead of simply filling in the schedule.
Schedule SH (Shareholding Pattern):
Unlisted companies need to disclose their shareholding pattern, including any changes during the year.
Companies that raised fresh capital, brought in new investors, or restructured shareholding mid-year often find this schedule doesn’t match what was actually filed with the ROC, because the two filings happened at different times with different data.
Schedule CG (Capital Gains) And Schedule 112a:
If your company sold shares, mutual fund units, or other capital assets, gains need to be reported scrip-wise in specific cases, particularly for listed securities.
This level of detail is easy to miss if you’re consolidating from a broker statement without checking the ITR’s exact reporting format.
Review these schedules against your trial balance before filing. This is going to be your single biggest time-saver when filing ITR-6 on your own for the first time.
Linking ITR-6 With Form 3CD and The Tax Audit Report
For companies that have to undergo a tax audit under Section 44AB, the ITR-6 filing cannot happen without it.
The tax audit report and the return are linked electronically on the e-filing portal. If you mess up the sequence, the ITR-6 system rejects your XML.
The Sequence of Uploads
Your CA first uploads the tax audit report. The CA uses Form 3CA (for companies already audited under the Companies Act) or 3CB, along with the detailed Form 3CD.
Once the CA uploads this report, the portal generates an acknowledgement number for the audit. When you, the company, try to submit ITR-6, you must quote this acknowledgement number and date of the audit report.
If you try to file ITR-6 before the CA has uploaded the report, the system will not allow you to proceed.
The 3CD Disclosures You Must Re-enter
The ITR-6 does not auto-populate from 3CD. You must feed in certain details yourself from the audit report, specifically:
- Clause 21: Impact of ICDS on profit. If the CA adjusted revenue or expense as per Income Computation and Disclosure Standards, the adjusted profit goes into Part A-OI (Other Information).
- Clause 26: Section 43B liabilities. Any VAT, EPF, or bonus not paid within the due date but debited to P&L gets added back to income. You input this in Schedule SI.
- Clause 31: Details of loan repayments, deposits, or immovable property transactions where no PAN was quoted. This requires you to fill up the rate of tax applicable on the payee. It directly affects Part B-TTI.
How to Handle Data Conflicts
Your financials go through two lenses: the Companies Act (Statutory Audit) and the Income Tax Act (Tax Audit).
The starting point is the profit as per P&L. In Schedule BP (Computation of Business Income), you take the net profit before tax from the P&L.
- Line 1: Profit as per accounts.
- Line 2 Onwards: Additions for debits not allowable (disallowances from 3CD).
- Deductions: Items credited in P&L but taxable elsewhere.
If your CA takes a tax position that involves judgment, such as claiming a deduction for a loan written off, it must be disclosed in Clause 40 of Form 3CD and also reflected in the income tax return as a disallowance.
You cannot have a disallowance in the return that is missing from the audit report, and vice versa. The department runs a reconciliation script, and a mismatch flags an immediate defect.
Penalty and Interest For Late Filing
Filing ITR-6 after November 30, 2026, opens up two financial hits and one strategic loss. You need to factor these into your compliance budget.
Late Filing Fee (Section 234F):
- If filed between December 1, 2026, and March 31, 2027, the late fee is ₹5,000.
- If total income is below ₹5 lakh, this may be restricted to ₹1,000, but for a company, income exceeding ₹5 lakh is almost a given.
- Pay this as self-assessment tax before filing the late return. You cannot file unless you have paid the fee.
Interest Under Section 234A:
This is the bigger cost. For any delay beyond November 30, you pay simple interest at 1% per month or part of a month on the net tax outstanding (total tax minus TDS and advance tax paid).
It’s calculated from December 1 till the date of actual filing. Even a single day’s delay into December 1 triggers interest for a full month.
Loss Carry Forward Restrictions:
This is the most damaging consequence for a growing company. If you file after the due date, you lose the right to carry forward:
- Business losses (non-speculative).
- Speculation losses.
- Capital losses.
- Unabsorbed depreciation (there’s some relief here if return is filed before end of AY, but don’t bank on it without specific advice).
If your company made a trading loss of ₹50 lakh in FY 2025-26 and you miss the November 30 deadline, you cannot set off that ₹50 lakh against future profits.
That is a direct tax cost of roughly ₹15 lakh (at current rates) going up in smoke. The late fee of ₹5,000 is trivial in comparison.
No Extension as a Matter of Right
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) does not issue automatic extensions for ITR-6 these days. In rare, catastrophic scenarios like a flood or a prolonged portal breakdown they might, but you cannot plan for it. Treat November 30 as the final line.
PKC’s Company Income Tax Return Filing Support
Filing ITR-6 involves more than submitting a return. It requires accurate depreciation calculations, MAT computation, reconciliation with Form 3CD, and consistency with ROC disclosures.
PKC Management Consulting handles the entire process so you don’t have to.
What PKC’s company ITR filing support includes:
- End-to-end preparation and filing: From gathering financial data to determining tax liability to selecting the correct ITR form. PKC expedites the e-filing process, ensuring timely submission.
- Document verification and reconciliation: PKC helps you gather, organize, and verify all necessary documents. This includes reconciling GST turnovers, rectifying 26AS with books of accounts, and verifying related party transactions.
- MAT compliance: For companies subject to MAT under Section 115JB, PKC handles Form 29B certification and accurate MAT computation.
- Tax planning: PKC goes beyond compliance. We identify tax-saving opportunities, claim appropriate deductions and exemptions, and help structure financial decisions to align with business goals.
- Audit report integration: If your company is liable for audit under Section 44AB, PKC ensures the audit report is uploaded electronically before or along with filing ITR-6.
- Notice response support: If you receive a tax notice, PKC’s team provides expert support and guidance every step of the way.
If your company is filing ITR-6 for the first time, converting from another entity structure, or simply wants the filing handled by a team that treats the tax audit and the return as one connected exercise rather than two separate deadlines, PKC’s tax advisory team can take this off your plate.
Get in touch with our tax advisory specialists to plan your company’s AY 2026-27 filing before the compliance calendar gets crowded.
FAQs
What is the due date for ITR-6 for AY 2026-27?
For companies requiring a tax audit, the due date is 31 October 2026. Non-audit companies must file by 31 August 2026. Companies with transfer pricing obligations under Section 92E have until 30 November 2026.
Which companies are required to file ITR-6?
All companies registered under the Companies Act, 2013 private limited, public limited, and one-person companies file ITR-6, except those claiming exemption under Section 11 for charitable or religious income, which file ITR-7 instead.
Can ITR-6 be filed without a digital signature?
No. Filing ITR-6 mandates the use of a valid Class 2 or Class 3 Digital Signature Certificate (DSC). The DSC must belong to an authorized director or company secretary and must be registered on the income tax e-filing portal. Physical filing or submission via Aadhaar OTP is not permitted for this return form.
What happens if ITR-6 is filed after the due date?
You incur a late filing fee under Section 234F of up to ₹5,000 and interest under Section 234A at 1% per month on the outstanding tax. More significantly, you permanently lose the right to carry forward business and capital losses to the next financial year, which can result in a much larger tax outlay.
Does ITR-6 filing require the tax audit report to be filed first?
Yes. Your Chartered Accountant must upload the tax audit report (Form 3CA/3CB and 3CD) to the e-filing portal before you submit ITR-6. You must quote the audit report acknowledgment number and upload date in the return. The system will reject your ITR-6 XML if the audit report is not already on file.
What financial statements need to be ready before filing ITR-6?
You need the finalized and audited Profit & Loss Account, Balance Sheet, and Notes to Accounts for the relevant financial year. The detailed break-up of fixed assets, director’s remuneration, auditor’s fees, and TDS schedules (Form 26AS and AIS) must be handy because ITR-6 requires you to manually feed these granular line items.
