The Income Tax Department has released the Excel utilities of most of the Income Tax Return (ITR) forms, including ITR-2 and ITR-3. It had released forms 1 and 4 earlier. This means that all major utilities for ITR forms 1, 2, 3, and 4 are now working on the income tax portal.
The Income Tax Department has previously extended the tax filing deadline for FY2024-25 (assessment year FY2025-26) from July 31, 2025, to September 15, 2025. ITR-2 is for individuals with salary, capital gains, cryptocurrency profits, and so on, whereas ITR-3 is mostly for firms that must undergo tax audits and persons trading futures and options (F&O).
In an X post, the Income Tax Department wrote, “Attention Taxpayers! Excel Utilities of ITR-2 and ITR-3 for AY 2025-26 are now live and available for filing.”
Ahead of filing your income tax return, take a look at the relevant changes in the ITR-3 and ITR-2 forms.
New changes to the ITR-2 tax form
Chartered Accountant Suresh Surana highlights the important changes introduced in the ITR-2 form:
Form ITR-2 now includes a new row to capture dividend income originating under Section 2(22)(f), specifically proceeds received by shareholders from share buybacks.
Resident individuals must now submit separate data for the cost of acquisition and improvement for transfers of land and structures completed before July 23, 2024, and on or after that date in the ITR-2 Form. This update makes indexation benefits applicable to such transactions.
A new row has been introduced to Schedule CG – A(A) to report capital losses from payments made by a company to its shareholders for the buyback of its own shares, in accordance with Section 68 of the Companies Act. These capital losses are now permitted, as long as the accompanying dividend income is disclosed under ‘Income from Other Sources’.
Taxpayers with a total income of more than ₹1 crore are now required to record all assets and liabilities as of the end of the fiscal year, up from the previous ₹ 50 lakh level.
The capital gains tax rates have also changed due to the Finance Act 2024, effective from July 23, 2024. Separate columns have been introduced to distinguish between capital gains made before, on, or after July 23, 2024.
A new column has been introduced to Schedule TDS in Form ITR-2 to specify the applicable Section code for which tax was deducted at source for the assessee.
New changes to the ITR-3 tax form
SR Patnaik, Partner (head – taxation), Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, explained to The Economic Times the prominent changes introduced in the ITR-3 Form for AY 2025-26:
The mandatory reporting threshold for assets and liabilities has been raised to ₹ 1 crore, reducing the compliance load for many taxpayers.
There are extensive disclosure requirements for deductions claimed to offset taxable income.
Taxpayers must now specify whether the transfer of a capital asset resulting in capital gains occurred before or after July 23, 2024, as this determines the applicable capital gains tax rate.
ITR-3 expands the reporting obligations for virtual digital assets.
It also allows for the reporting of consideration received from share buybacks after October 1, 2024, as dividend income, but the cost of acquisition can be carried forward as capital loss.
It requires the reporting of TDS under the exact section from which tax has been deducted.
Source: CNBC TV18
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