The Income Tax Department on Friday said updated tax audit forms, Form 3CA-3CD and Form 3CB-3CD, are now available on the e-filing portal for businesses and professionals. These forms are meant for filing tax audits under Section 44AB of the Income Tax Act.
A tax audit is mandatory for businesses with turnover exceeding ₹1 crore (or ₹10 crore in case of limited cash transactions), professionals with receipts above ₹50 lakh, and taxpayers opting out of presumptive taxation under specified sections. It involves a detailed review of financial records by a chartered accountant to ensure accuracy in tax filings.
For the assessment year 2025–26, 71 key changes have been introduced, including new reporting requirements and changes in format. The department also released an updated offline filing utility to help validate data and reduce filing errors, especially for large submissions.
- MSME Payment Reporting (Clause 22): Auditors now need to clearly mention if payments to micro or small businesses were delayed beyond the legal time limit and whether interest paid on such delays is not allowed as a tax deduction.
- Presumptive Income (Clause 12): A new rule under Section 44BBC requires cruise operators from outside India to declare 20% of certain receipts as income. This must now be reported in the audit form.
- Disallowed Expenses (Clause 21): Expenses related to legal violations or financial settlements now need to be reported, as they can’t be claimed as deductions under the new tax rules.
- Loan and Deposit Details (Clause 31): More details must now be given for loans and repayments, such as type, amount, and whether the payment was made through an account payee cheque or draft.
- Share Buybacks (Clause 36B): A new clause requires companies to report how much money they paid to buy back shares and the cost of those shares, as such buybacks are now taxed like dividends.
Offline utility and schema changes
The department has released a new version (Schema 2.2) of its common offline utility for Forms 3CA, 3CB, and 3CD. This means that using older versions will result in file rejection due to schema mismatch errors.
Filing deadlines remain unchanged
The deadline to file tax audit reports for FY24–25 (AY25–26) is September 30, 2025, and the subsequent ITR filing deadline is October 31, 2025.
Source: CNBC TV18
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