ITR portal: Govt says managed service provider was penalised in FY26 for outages and due date extension

Other penalties imposed on the MSP

• Delay in IEC 2.0 rollout: The MSP was penalised in the form of ‘liquidated damages’ for failing to deliver the Integrated e-Filing and Centralized Processing Centre 2.0 project for the use of taxpayers as per the original schedule in July 2020.

• Service-level performance: The government imposed penalties for 12 quarters after the MSP failed to meet prescribed service-level performance scores, including prolonged outages and operational lapses. Service Levels Scores are measured on a quarterly basis.
• Portal outages: The MSP was also penalised in FY 2025-26 for application outages on the e-filing portal during the peak filing period.

Why is an ITR deadline extension unlikely this year?

• The e-filing portal's performance is being monitored on a continuous basis through a dedicated daily and hourly monitoring dashboard that is tracking login, income tax returns filed, Annual Information Statement (AIS) or compliance portal redirections, payment gateway status, error codes and other operational indicators.
• Any technical issue reported on the portal is taken up for time-bound identification, escalation and resolution.

Activities on e-filing portal in 2025 and 2026

When is your due date for filing your ITR?

• ITR-1 and ITR-2 (Salary and capital gains income): 31st July 2026
• ITR-3 and ITR-4 (Business income - Non-audit cases): 31st August 2026
• ITR-3 and ITR-4 (Business income - Cases requiring audit): 31st October 2026
• Businesses requiring transfer pricing reports (international transactions or specified domestic transactions): 30th November 2026
• Belated Return: 31st December 2026
• Revised Return: 31st March 2027
• Updated Return (ITR-U): 31st March 2031 (within 4 years from the end of the relevant Assessment Year)