Direct Taxes Committee (DTC) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has submitted a detailed representation to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) highlighting widespread technical glitches in the Income-tax Portal that are creating compliance hurdles for taxpayers and professionals. Based on more than 1,200 responses received from members, the DTC has compiled key issues affecting tax audit report filing, ITR submission, payment of taxes, and renewal applications for charitable trusts and institutions under Form 10AB. Among the major concerns raised are frequent login failures, OTP delays, forced logouts, DSC registration errors, difficulties in uploading Tax Audit Reports (Forms 3CA/3CB-3CD), and challenges in accessing AIS, TIS, and Form 26AS. Taxpayers also reported delays in challan generation despite successful payments, late release of ITR utilities, validation errors in offline tools, and unexplained error messages during filing. These problems have significantly slowed compliance, with tax audit report filings at only 10% of last year’s levels. Additional concerns relate to levy of interest and late fees despite timely filing, and persistent glitches in Form 10AB submission for trust registrations due by 30th September 2025. ICAI has urged CBDT to take urgent corrective measures and requested a personal meeting with officials to resolve these issues before statutory deadlines, emphasizing that timely solutions are critical for effective tax compliance and avoiding undue hardships for taxpayers and professionals.
Announcement – DTC Representation to CBDT to resolve the concerns on account of technical glitches in the Income-tax Portal.
Direct Taxes Committee
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India
23rd September, 2025
Announcement
The Direct Taxes Committee (DTC) of ICAI has been receiving mails from members expressing concerns on account of the technical glitches in the Income-tax portal. In order to send appropriate representation to facilitate timely resolution, we had webhosted an Announcement and sent mass mail on 19th September, 2025 requesting members to share their specific concerns with DTC.
We have received more than 1200 responses from members till date. We thank the members for sharing their concerns and would like to inform that DTC has compiled the same and submitted representation to the CBDT, requesting them to take suitable measures to address the concerns at the earliest. We have also requested for a personal meeting at the earliest to discuss the concerns. The representation sent to Member (IT), CBDT can be viewed at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nl6OPk4oAYyZZUN3bEoyKyUmKKGickbM/view
Chairman, Direct Taxes Committee, ICAI
Vice Chairman, Direct Taxes Committee, ICAI
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ICAI/DTC/2025-26/Rep-12 Dated: 22nd September 2025
Shri Sanjay Bahadur,
Member (IT),
Central Board of Direct Taxes,
Ministry of Finance,
Government of India,
North Block,
New Delhi – 110001
Respected Sir,
Sub: Request for addressing the concerns arising on account of the updated utilities and technical glitches in the Income-tax Portal
As you are kindly aware, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is a statutory body established by the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 for the regulation of the profession of chartered accountancy in India. ICAI, being a partner in nation building, plays a pivotal role in strengthening the relationship between the taxpayers and the Department; by bringing to the notice of the Department genuine hardship being faced by the taxpayers so that the same can be resolved timely for effective tax compliance.
Background and Concerns
We also wish to bring to your kind attention the concerns faced by many taxpayers in return filing and also the problems in filing tax audit report, for which 30th September, 2025 is the last date. Also, issues are being faced in submission of Form 10AB for renewal of registration of trusts, for which the last date is 30th September, 2025 in cases where registration falls due on 1st April, 2026. Based on 1200+ responses received, we have compiled the following major concerns, apart from others, so that they can be addressed timely, to facilitate effective compliance of law.
I. Concerns in relation to Form 3CA-3CD/Form 3CB-3CD
The utility for filing Tax Audit Reports was released only on 18th July, 2025, very much later than last year’s release on 1st April, 2024. A lot of technical glitches are being faced in the portal while uploading tax audit report, such as:
- Frequent login failures
- OTP not delivered or delivered with significant delay; also, by the time OTP arrives, the session times out
- Forced logouts, especially while switching between client profiles (PANs) or when opening multiple statutory utilities (e.g., Form 3CD/Tax Audit, AIS/TIS).
- Slow portal speed; also, the site is continuously taking time to load.
- Difficulty/Error messages while attaching statement of profit and loss and balance sheet.
- DSC not getting registered/updated on portal.
- Taking multiple attempts at affixing DSC step after uploading Form 3CD.
- PAN error displayed several times while trying to submit Json file, even though PAN entered was correctly.
- Difficulty experienced while adding chartered accountant
- Audit report uploaded by chartered accountant but not visible for taxpayer acceptance.
- Validation errors in certain clauses (like clause 21 and 44)
- Error messages without explanation (“Something went wrong”, “Technical error”).
- Difficulty in uploading TAR Json file, showing version errors
Sample screenshots of the above concerns are given as Annexure.
Due to the above reasons, the tax audit reports uploaded this year till date are only 3,77,243 (based on UDIN generated) which is just 10% of the UDIN count of total tax audit reports filed last year. The same can also be compared with the CBDT data base on the actual tax audit reports filed today vis-à-vis the previous year to assess the actual situation.
It may be noted that similar errors / problems are being faced in filing Audit Reports of Charitable trusts and institutions in Form No. 10B/10BB and even a single day delay in filing Form No. 10B/10BB can lead to denial of exemption u/s. 11 of the Act, by the CPC, while processing the return of income u/s. 143(1) of the Act.
II. Concerns in relation to ITR filing
1. Login issues on the Income-tax E-filing Portal
The concern pertains to the accessibility and responsiveness of the Income Tax Portal. Taxpayers are facing issues such as
- login failures (in some cases, the site is not accepting valid login ID Passwords and throws error: “Request not authenticated”),
- difficulty in accessing the portal through certain browsers,
- frequent abrupt logouts /expiry of sessions,
- substantial delays / lags on the Portal causing difficulty in timely filing of returns.
- The portal shows ‘Loading’ error for several minutes, and then, thereafter ‘Service unavailable’ is displayed.
Despite following the standard troubleshooting steps suggested (clearing browser cache/cookies, trying multiple browsers like Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and using alternate internet connections), the portal remains inaccessible on certain systems, while working intermittently on others.
2. Downloading AIS, TIS, and Form 26AS from the Income-tax E-filing Portal
Technical challenges are being encountered while downloading the Annual Information Statement (AIS), Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS), and Form 26AS from the Income Tax Portal. While trying to access AIS, the ‘Service Unavailable’ page is shown. These documents form the backbone of accurate reporting, income-tax reconciliation, and compliance verification.
3. Payment of tax and challan generation
In several instances, challans for advance tax, self-assessment tax, and other statutory payments are either not generated real time or the acknowledgements are not promptly reflected in the system. When payment was done using e-Pay Tax, the HTML Error page opened up after successful debit of amount from bank account and challan was not generated. Payments made through net banking/UPI are successfully debited from the bank accounts, but valid challans (CRN/CIN) are not generated in many cases. Such payments are reflected under the status “Payment Initiated”, thereby delaying return filing and leading to compliance hardships. In effect, challan payments are taking a long time, and it is only after trying for a few times, a person is able to deposit tax. Only after challan payment, it is possible to file the return, because of which return filing is delayed.
4. Concerns relating to Utilities
Excel utilities for ITR 5, 6 and 7 were enabled in August, 2025. Offline utility for ITR 5 was enabled on 6th September and ITR 7 was enabled on 18th September. Income Tax Return Form of ITR-5 and ITR-7 are enabled to file through Online mode with prefilled data at the portal only on 19th September, 2025. Offline and Online utility for ITR 6 is yet to be enabled as on date.
Members have expressed concern that excel utility of department portal if opened in old version of excel shows error messages. Further, the utility was updated again on 16th September 2025, due to which JSON generated through proprietary software has to be again opened in department utility and revalidated and uploaded, ultimately consuming a lot of time. Another concern is that Excel Utility of ITR 5 is not working properly and is showing error of 32 bit vs 64 bit compatibility. Since the online utility was not available upto 19th September, taxpayers were trying the Offline ITR Utility which was too slow.
As far as ITR 6 is concerned, both the offline and online utilities are not available and the excel utility is not found to be convenient by many taxpayers. The data loading in the Excel utility is very slow and while the utility is working, other Excel files do not work. Also, it is not possible to upload the voluminous data in TDS schedule as per Form 26AS as there is no option to pull the data directly from 26AS.
There are cases where despite using the latest version of the utility and ensuring proper validation of the JSON file, the portal does not allow successful submission. The system either shows an error message or fails to complete the upload process. This issue is causing unnecessary delay in filing and compliance.
Also, the JSON file generated from the offline utility is not getting uploaded successfully in spite of trying multiple times. The portal shows the following error: “Http failure response for https://eportal.incometax.gov.in/iec/itrweb/auth/v0.1/returns/submit/wzrd/xml: 0 Unknown Error”
There are also cases where, though there is no error in JSON, after inserting the DSC, message stating “ERROR DESCRIPTION AS NULL” appears.
5. Concerns relating to levy of interest and fees even where return is filed on time
Even in case of taxpayers whose due date falls on 31st October, 2025, interest under section 234A and fee under 234F get calculated while computing tax payable. Further, option u/s 139(4) gets selected by default even if the due date is 31st October, due to which carry forward of losses is not permitted.
6. Other concerns
The other concerns faced by taxpayers are –
- Delay/failure in OTP verification
- Validation takes a long-time.
- Multiple attempts to file a single ITR
- Difficulty in accessing past year data/downloading previous years returns of income
- Difficulty in affixing DSC
Sample screenshots of the above concerns are attached as Annexure.
III. Concerns relating to filing Form 10AB
As per section 12A(ac)(ii), where the trust or institution is registered under section 12AB or approved under section 10(23C)(iv)/(v)/(vi)/(via) and the period of said registration or approval is due to expire, an application in Form 10AB has to be made atleast 6 months prior to the expiry of the said period to the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner.
Registration under Section 12AB commenced from 1.4.2021 and the five year period of validity of the registration would expire on 31.3.2026. An application in Form 10AB for renewal has to be made atleast 6 months prior to the expiry of the said period, i.e., on or before 30.9.2025 for trusts registered on 1.4.2021 under section 12AB whose five year period expires on 31.3.2026. There is a similar requirement for funds and institutions approved under section 80G(5) and trusts and institutions approved under section 10(23C)(iv)/(v)/(vi)/(via).
Many issues are also being faced in submission of application in Form 10AB for renewal, for which the last date is 30.9.2025, for trusts whose renewal falls due on 1.4.2026 –
1. OTP Validation Issue
After entering the OTP, the system frequently displays the message “Invalid OTP”.
2. DSC Verification Issue
While attempting to verify using DSC, the portal shows “DSC not registered” even though the DSC has already been successfully registered.
3. Saved Form Data Disappearing
At times, the entire form that was filled and saved suddenly turns blank, resulting in loss of entered details.
4. Submission Errors
After OTP validation, upon clicking “Submit”, the portal keeps loading for about 5 minutes before showing an error message without specifying the reason. About 10 minutes later, the entire form turns blank, requiring the form to be re-filled from scratch. On trying to submit the next day, the same issues recur, including OTP validation errors and difficulties during submission.
5. Login Challenges
At times, logging in to the portal itself is difficult, leading to additional delays in the filing process. The auto-fill process takes long time to load, leading to repeated delays in completing the form filing process.
We request you to kindly take suitable measures to address these concerns at the earliest. Also, we request for a personal meeting with your goodself at the earliest to discuss the above concerns.
Thanking you,
With Warm Regards,
CA Piyush S Chhajed
Chairman, Direct Taxes Committee
