ITR date extension soon. TRSCES/26AS is under maintenance. ITR Deadline Nears: TRACES Under Maintenance, Taxpayers Await Extension
With the September 15th deadline for filing Income Tax Returns (ITR) for non-audit cases fast approaching, taxpayers and tax professionals are facing a new hurdle: the TRACES (TDS Reconciliation Analysis and Correction Enabling System) portal is temporarily down for maintenance. This service disruption, along with other persistent technical glitches on the e-filing portal, is intensifying calls for another deadline extension.
TRACES Downtime and Its Impact
The TDS Centralized Processing Cell (CPC) website, known as TRACES, is currently undergoing a scheduled upgrade. A notice on the portal indicates that services like login, registration, and viewing/downloading of Form 26AS are unavailable from 9:00 PM on September 11, 2025, to 11:00 PM on the same day.
For taxpayers, Form 26AS is a critical document. It is an annual consolidated statement that provides a complete summary of all taxes deducted and deposited on a taxpayer’s behalf, including TDS, TCS, advance tax, and self-assessment tax. Taxpayers must reconcile the information in their Form 26AS with their personal records to ensure accuracy before filing their ITR. The temporary unavailability of this form makes it impossible for many to complete this crucial step, potentially leading to errors and delays.
Growing Demands for an Extension
The current maintenance on TRACES is not an isolated incident. Tax professionals and bodies, including the Bombay Chartered Accountants’ Society (BCAS) and the Chartered Accountants Association, Surat (CAAS), have been urging the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) for a further extension of the ITR filing due date.
The primary reasons cited for the extension requests are:
Persistent Technical Glitches: Users report frequent login failures, slow portal performance, and validation errors, which are hampering the filing process.
Data Mismatches: Discrepancies between the data in the Annual Information Statement (AIS), Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS), and Form 26AS are common, requiring extensive time for reconciliation.
Late Release of Utilities: The staggered and delayed release of ITR and audit forms this year has significantly shortened the effective filing window for both taxpayers and professionals.
What’s Next for Taxpayers?
The deadline for non-audit cases for the financial year 2024-25 (Assessment Year 2025-26) was already extended once from July 31, 2025, to September 15, 2025. As of now, there has been no official notification from the government regarding a further extension.
Taxpayers are advised not to wait for a last-minute announcement. It is recommended to file their returns as soon as the TRACES portal is back online and all reconciliations are complete. Failure to file on time can result in penalties, interest charges, and delays in processing refunds. The late filing fee is ₹5,000, though it is limited to ₹1,000 for taxpayers with a total income below ₹5 lakh.