Income Tax Portal Enables AY 2026-27 ITR-5, ITR-6 and ITR-7 Utilities

The Income Tax Department has now enabled every non-individual return form for assessment year 2026-27 on the e-filing portal. According to the department's News and e-Campaigns updates, the online ITR-5 went live on 5 August 2026, the online ITR-7 on 11 August, and the online ITR-6 on 18 August, with the offline utilities for ITR-5, ITR-7 and ITR-6 following on 7, 14 and 20 August respectively. For firms, LLPs, AOPs, companies and trusts, and the chartered accountants preparing their returns, this means all three forms can now be filed through both the online and offline routes.

Release timeline for AY 2026-27

The income tax return downloads page lists desktop utilities for Windows and Mac, Excel-based utilities and JSON schemas for ITR-5, ITR-6 and ITR-7. The utilities have already been revised: as on the latest listing, the ITR-5 Excel utility is at version 1.4 and the ITR-7 Excel utility at version 1.2, both released on 1 September 2026, while ITR-6 is at version 1.0 released on 4 August 2026. The department states that the Excel utilities need Microsoft Excel 2016 or later with macros enabled. Return preparers who downloaded an early version should download the current one before filing.

Which form applies

The downloads page describes the scope of each form as follows:

• ITR-5: for persons other than an individual, a HUF, a company and a person filing ITR-7. In practice this covers firms, LLPs, AOPs, BOIs, artificial juridical persons, local authorities and similar entities.
• ITR-6: for companies other than companies claiming exemption under section 11.
• ITR-7: for persons, including companies, required to furnish a return under section 139(4A), 139(4B), 139(4C) or 139(4D) only, which covers charitable and religious trusts, political parties, research associations, institutions and similar bodies.

Because assessment year 2026-27 relates to the financial year 2025-26, these returns are filed under the Income-tax Act, 1961, which is why the section references above are to the old Act. The Income-tax Act, 2025 governs tax year 2026-27 onwards.

Before filing, practitioners should match the form to the legal status of the entity, confirm that the audited accounts and tax audit report are final where an audit applies, and reconcile the figures with Form 26AS and the AIS. For trusts filing ITR-7, the registration or approval details reported in the return should match the department's records.

New ITR-BN for block assessments in search cases

Separately, the CBDT has notified the Income-tax (Third Amendment) Rules, 2026 through Notification No. 97/2026 (G.S.R. 656(E)) dated 24 July 2026, F. No. 370142/11/2026-TPL. The rules amend rule 332 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 and insert Appendix IV containing Form ITR-BN, the return for block assessment in search and seizure cases under Chapter XVI-B of the Income-tax Act, 2025. The amendment is deemed to have come into force on 1 April 2026.

ITR-BN is the return called for under section 294(1)(a) of the 2025 Act where a search is initiated under section 247, or a requisition is made under section 248, on or after 1 April 2026. It covers a block period of seven tax years: the six tax years preceding the year of the search or requisition, and the year in which it takes place. This form is not part of the regular annual return cycle, and is relevant only to taxpayers facing search or requisition action under the new Act.

Related updates covered separately

Two other portal and CBDT developments from the same period were first reported alongside this item and are covered in their own reports: the TDS exemption for specified payments received by eligible IFSC units under CBDT Notification No. 80/2026, and the display of CRS and FATCA foreign-asset information in the AIS, discussed in our report on reconciling foreign-asset data in AIS.

Updated on 27 September 2026: Added the official release dates for the online and offline ITR-5, ITR-6 and ITR-7 utilities, current utility versions, the applicability of each form, and verified details of Notification No. 97/2026 on Form ITR-BN; merged the duplicate reports on the ITR-5 and ITR-7 utilities and moved the IFSC TDS and AIS items to their own reports.