New ITR Forms Enabled: 5 Key Changes in 3CA-3CD & 3CB-3CD
On July 18, 2025 the Income Tax Department said that Income Tax Audit using Forms 3CA-3CD and 3CB-3CD are now enabled on the e-Filing ITR portal with many changes. Moreover, the tax department has also released the common offline utility functionality of income tax audit forms Form 3CA, Form 3CB and Form 3CD.
Regarding the changes made in the respective tax audit forms the Income Tax Department released a separate schema change document which lists out a total of 71 changes that have been made in the respective tax audit forms. (35 in Form 3CA-3CD and 36 in Form 3CB-3CD).
The deadline for filing a tax audit report using the respective forms remains unchanged – September 30, 2025 for FY 2024-25 (AY 2025-26). Once the tax audit report is filed, taxpayers are required to file an income tax return (ITR) on or before October 31, 2025.
Tax audit is a mandatory requirement for those taxpayers who have a specified income level from business or profession heads of income and is required to maintain a books of accounts.
What are some of the changes made in the income tax audit forms for FY 2024-25 (AY 2025-26)?
Chartered Accountant Ashish Karundia explains that in the tax audit form-3CD, clause 22 has been updated to strengthen disclosure requirements related to payments made to micro or small enterprises, as well as the interest that is not allowable as a deduction.
The table below explains the two main changes made in clause 22 of tax audit Form 3CD:
| Sub-clause i |
Sub-clause ii |
Sub-clause iii |
| Requires disclosure of the amount of interest that is not allowable under Section 23 of the MSMED Act. |
Requires reporting of the total amount due to micro or small enterprises, as defined under Section 15 of the MSMED Act, during the relevant financial year |
Requires a breakdown of payments:
|
Karundia says: “In summary, sub-clause iii (b) covers payments that meet both of the following criteria: they are made after the deadline under Section 15, and they are not allowed as deductions for the relevant financial year.”
