Income Tax Department Makes Excel Utility Of ITR-5 Live: Know Who Should File And Key Deadlines To Know

The Income Tax Department has made the Excel Utility for ITR-5 available for Assessment Year 2025-26, giving the green light to a wide range of non-individual taxpayers to start preparing their income tax returns (ITRs)

This year, the Income Tax Department has delayed the release of many ITR forms in order to update them in accordance with changes brought in tax rules in Budget 2024.

With ITR-5 excel utility live now, here’s the category of taxpayers who can begin filing their returns now:

• Partnership firms

• Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs)

• Associations of Persons

• Bodies of Individuals

• Cooperative societies

• Artificial juridical persons

• Societies registered under the Societies Registration Act

• Local authorities, and certain business trusts and investment funds.

If you are an individual, a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF), a company, or an entity that falls under the ITR-7 category, ITR-5 form is not meant for you.

The structure of ITR-5 is more detailed than other forms (similar to ITR-7) as entities handle multiple layers of financial activity. It has two sections:

• Part A consists of general details including information, such as balance sheet, manufacturing or trading accounts, profit-and-loss statement, and other basic information.

• Part B is for computation of total income and tax liability

Other than these, there are many schedules that entities and individuals filing income tax returns (ITRs) use for declaring income from various sources, including details of carried-forward losses, depreciation, deductions, exempt income, foreign assets, Goods and Services Tax (GST) reconciliation, and any tax reliefs that need to be claimed.

This year, the Income Tax Department made some notable changes in the forms. In ITR 5, there is now a section to report MSME registration details, which may matter for compliance and benefits. Additionally, the department has added a section for claiming deductions under Section 80-IAC, which will be useful for eligible start-ups. Since, the reporting requirements have been made wider after Budget 2024, now virtual digital assets, such as crypto and non-fungible token (NFT) transactions have to be declared in detail, too.

There is also a change in deadlines for some taxpayers. Non-audited entities now have until September 15, 2025 to file a pushback from the usual date, mainly because the updated forms came later this year due to changes announced in Budget 2024. For audited entities, the due date stays at October 31, 2025. If a transfer pricing audit is required, the last date is November 30, 2025.

Before starting the filing process, make sure the basics are covered, portal registration, bank account validation for refunds, and updated digital signature, if applicable. Also, it is worth double-checking that your tax credit data matches Form 26AS to avoid delays or mismatches later.