October 31 is the due date for ITR-6 filing, the Income Tax Return for companies registered under the Companies Act. For most businesses, that means the return, the tax audit report, and all supporting schedules need to be in order well before the last week of October. What makes this deadline different from the July 31 individual deadline is the sheer volume of preparation it demands: board approvals, finalised accounts, a completed tax audit, and a Form 3CD that aligns with the return you eventually file.
This guide covers who files ITR-6, what the form requires, how the October 31 deadline fits into the broader audit-to-filing timeline, and what finance teams should be doing right now.
Who Files ITR-6
ITR-6 is for companies that are not claiming exemption under Section 11 of the Income Tax Act. Section 11 applies to income from property held for charitable or religious purposes, so trusts and institutions claiming that exemption file elsewhere (ITR-7). Every other company registered under the Companies Act 2013 or the older 1956 Act files ITR-6. This includes:
- Private limited companies
- Public limited companies (listed and unlisted)
- One Person Companies (OPCs)
- Foreign companies with a taxable presence in India
LLPs are not companies and do not file ITR-6. They file ITR-5. If your entity is structured as an LLP, the form and several of the compliance requirements differ.
The October 31 Deadline — What It Actually Requires
The October 31, 2026 due date covers ITR-6 filing for FY 2025-26 (Assessment Year 2026-27). But October 31 is the endpoint of a chain, not a standalone date.
Companies are required to get a tax audit under Section 44AB if turnover exceeds ₹1 crore (₹10 crore if 95% or more of transactions are digital). For most companies with meaningful turnover, audit applicability is a given. The audit report, Forms 3CA and 3CD must be uploaded and accepted on the portal by September 30. The ITR follows by October 31.
So the real preparation timeline runs like this: books must be finalised and audited by end-September, the audit report uploaded, and then the return filed in October. Any company that has not closed its FY 2025-26 accounts yet is already working against the clock.
For a fuller picture of how the September 30 audit deadline fits into the broader compliance calendar, the post on tax audit deadline September 30 and what businesses must do covers the preparation requirements in detail.
What ITR-6 Actually Contains
ITR-6 is not a short form. It runs across multiple schedules, each requiring specific figures from the books. Finance teams who have not filled it before often underestimate how granular it gets.
The major schedules include:
Schedule BP (Business or Profession) — profit and loss as per books, adjusted for disallowances and additions under the Income Tax Act. This is where depreciation differences, TDS defaults, MSME payment disallowances, and other Section 40/43B adjustments get computed.
Schedule DPM / DEP — depreciation as per the Income Tax Act. This is computed separately from Companies Act depreciation. The two schedules run in parallel and the difference between them is a recurring adjustment in Schedule BP.
Schedule CG (Capital Gains) — if the company sold any fixed assets, investments, shares, or other capital assets during FY 2025-26, the gains or losses are computed here by asset class and holding period.
Schedule OI (Other Information) — this schedule requires disclosure of method of accounting, inventory valuation method, speculative transactions, prior period items, and whether books were maintained under Section 44AA. This feeds directly into what the auditor certifies in Form 3CD.
Schedule ICDS — compliance with Income Computation and Disclosure Standards. There are ten ICDS standards, and any deviation from the accounting treatment in the financial statements requires a specific adjustment here.
Schedule ESR (Expenditure on Scientific Research) and other deduction schedules under Chapter VI-A — deductions under Sections 80G, 80IC, 80JJAA, and others that a company may be claiming.
Part A-BS (Balance Sheet) and Part A-P&L — the complete audited balance sheet and profit and loss account. These must match the financials signed off by the statutory auditor.
Schedule FSI / TR / FA — for companies with foreign income, foreign assets, or overseas subsidiaries. These schedules have grown in complexity as the department’s focus on offshore structures has increased.
The return is filed digitally with a Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) of an authorised signatory typically a director. Filing without DSC is not permitted for companies.
Minimum Alternate Tax — Section 115JB
Every company filing ITR-6 must compute Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) under Section 115JB, regardless of whether it applies to them. MAT applies when a company’s tax liability under normal provisions falls below 15% of its book profit. In that case, the company pays tax at 15% of book profit instead.
Book profit under Section 115JB starts with net profit as per the profit and loss account and then makes specific additions and deductions prescribed in the section. This is a separate computation from taxable income under normal provisions both must be calculated, and the higher of the two becomes the tax liability.
For companies in their early years, or companies with significant depreciation, carried forward losses, or tax holiday benefits, MAT is often the operative tax. The MAT credit mechanism under Section 115JAA allows the excess MAT paid over normal tax to be carried forward for up to 15 years and set off when normal tax eventually exceeds MAT.
If your company has been paying MAT in prior years, verify the MAT credit balance available and check whether FY 2025-26 is a year where normal tax exceeds MAT meaning MAT credit can be utilised.
Corporate Tax Rates for FY 2025-26
The applicable corporate tax rate depends on the company’s profile:
Domestic companies under the standard regime pay tax at 30% of taxable income (plus 7% surcharge if income exceeds ₹1 crore, 12% above ₹10 crore) plus 4% health and education cess.
Companies that opted for the concessional regime under Section 115BAA pay 22% (plus 10% surcharge and 4% cess) with no MAT applicability. The effective rate works out to approximately 25.17%.
New manufacturing companies that opted for Section 115BAB pay 15% (plus 10% surcharge and 4% cess), effective approximately 17.01%. This option was available for companies incorporated and commencing production before March 31, 2024 so it is not available to new entities.
The choice of regime affects not just the rate but also which deductions and exemptions apply. Companies under 115BAA and 115BAB give up most deductions and incentives. If your company has not yet made a formal regime election and is not on a concessional rate, it files under the standard regime.
ICDS Compliance — The Schedule That Gets Ignored
Income Computation and Disclosure Standards are mandatory for all companies filing ITR-6 and are one of the more commonly mishandled parts of the return. There are ten standards covering revenue recognition, construction contracts, tangible fixed assets, the effects of foreign exchange, government grants, borrowing costs, inventories, provisions, securities, and intangible assets.
Each ICDS prescribes how income and expenditure are to be computed for tax purposes. Where a company’s accounting treatment under Ind AS or AS differs from the ICDS treatment, a specific adjustment is required in Schedule ICDS. These adjustments flow into the computation of taxable income and affect tax liability.
Common ICDS adjustments that get missed: recognition of revenue under construction contracts (percentage of completion under ICDS II versus possible contract-level recognition under accounting standards), treatment of export incentives and government subsidies (ICDS VII requires upfront recognition in some cases where accounting might defer), and mark-to-market gains and losses on foreign exchange (ICDS VI restricts recognition of unrealised MTM losses).
If your finance team has been computing tax on financial statement figures without running a separate ICDS check, the return may need adjustment before filing.
Carry Forward Losses — Why Filing on Time Matters More for Companies
For companies, the stakes around the October 31 deadline are particularly high when losses are involved. Business losses, speculation losses, and losses under the head capital gains can be carried forward only if the return is filed by the due date. A belated return filed after October 31 forecloses that option.
Given how FY 2025-26 played out for several sectors rising input costs, tightening credit conditions, and export softness in some industries companies that ran losses this year have a strong incentive to file on time and preserve the carry-forward.
The interaction between losses and MAT credit is also worth noting. A company with brought-forward losses and MAT credit accumulated in prior years needs to carefully sequence the setoffs to optimise tax. This is something the return computation handles explicitly, but it requires the correct figures to flow in from the books.
TDS Compliance — What Shows Up in Form 3CD and AIS
One of the areas that consistently creates problems in corporate ITR-6 filing is TDS. Companies are deductors in most transactions salary, rent, professional fees, contractor payments, interest, and a range of other payments. Form 3CD requires the auditor to certify all cases where TDS was deductible and not deducted, or deducted but not deposited by the due date.
Any such default has a direct tax consequence: 30% of the relevant expenditure is disallowed under Section 40(a)(ia) and gets added back to taxable income. For a company with ₹1 crore in professional fees where TDS was not deducted, that is ₹30 lakh added back to taxable income.
Beyond the disallowance, the Annual Information Statement now cross-references what companies report in TDS returns against what counterparties report as income received. Discrepancies surface automatically. If you have not reconciled your company’s AIS with its books and TDS returns, the process outlined in the post on AIS vs Form 26AS reconciliation applies equally to corporate filers, the mechanics are the same, the stakes are just higher.
The Related Party and Section 40A Disclosures
ITR-6 and Form 3CD both require detailed disclosures of payments to related parties directors, shareholders above a threshold, and associated entities. Payments made in excess of fair market value, or without adequate documentation of the arm’s-length basis, attract scrutiny and potential disallowance under Section 40A(2).
This is distinct from transfer pricing, which applies to international transactions. Domestic related party payments are governed by Section 40A(2), and the threshold for scrutiny has been consistently applied in assessments.
If your company has inter-company transactions, director remuneration, or payments to promoter-linked entities, make sure these are supported by agreements, board resolutions, and valuation documentation before the return is filed.
What Finance Teams Should Be Doing Now
With October 31 six weeks away, here is where preparation effort is best spent:
Finalise accounts and get them to the statutory auditor. The tax auditor cannot sign Form 3CD until the accounts are finalised and, in the case of companies, signed off by the statutory auditor. If accounts are still open, that is the bottleneck.
Run the ICDS adjustments. Go through each of the ten standards against your accounting policies and quantify any adjustments required. This feeds Schedule ICDS and the overall tax computation.
Audit your TDS filings for all four quarters of FY 2025-26. Check for missed deductions, short deductions, and late deposits. Quantify the Section 40(a)(ia) disallowance exposure before the CA does it for you in Form 3CD.
Reconcile GST turnover with Income Tax turnover. The AIS now includes GST data. Differences between GST returns and books need an explanation reconcile them now.
Check the MAT computation. Calculate book profit under Section 115JB in parallel with the normal tax computation. Verify the MAT credit position if applicable.
Prepare for DSC. Confirm the authorised signatory’s DSC is valid and registered on the income tax portal. An expired DSC discovered on October 30 is an avoidable problem.
For companies working through this process with a finance team that is already stretched, having a tax consultant in India coordinate the audit-to-filing workflow is often the most effective way to meet both the September 30 and October 31 deadlines without errors in the return.
Let Transparian File Your ITR-6 on Time
From tax audit coordination and ICDS adjustments to accurate ITR filing services for companies and a tax consultant in India who handles the October 31 deadline end-to-end, Transparian takes the preparation pressure off your finance team.
FAQ’s
ITR-6 is the Income Tax Return form for companies registered under the Companies Act that are not claiming exemption under Section 11 (income from property held for charitable or religious purposes). This includes private limited companies, public limited companies, One Person Companies, and foreign companies with taxable income in India. LLPs are not companies and file ITR-5 instead.
The due date for filing ITR-6 for FY 2025-26 (Assessment Year 2026-27) is October 31, 2026. Companies subject to tax audit under Section 44AB must also ensure the audit report (Forms 3CA and 3CD) is uploaded and accepted on the income tax portal by September 30, 2026 before the return can be filed.
Most companies filing ITR-6 are required to get a tax audit under Section 44AB. The audit is mandatory if turnover exceeds ₹1 crore, or ₹10 crore if 95% or more of all receipts and payments during FY 2025-26 were through banking channels or digital modes. Companies with turnover below the applicable threshold are technically exempt from audit but must still file ITR-6.
Missing October 31 means the company loses the ability to carry forward business losses, capital gains losses, and speculation losses. A belated return can be filed until December 31, 2026, but it does not preserve carry-forward rights. A late filing fee under Section 234F applies (₹5,000 for income above ₹5 lakh, ₹1,000 below), and interest under Section 234A accrues on any unpaid tax from November 1 until filing.
The concept of old and new regimes, as it applies to individuals, does not work the same way for companies. Companies have separate regime options: the standard regime at 30%, the concessional regime under Section 115BAA at 22% (effective ~25.17%), or the manufacturing regime under Section 115BAB at 15% (effective ~17.01%) for eligible companies.
