The Income Tax Return (ITR) filing season for Assessment Year (AY) 2026-27 has officially gained momentum. The Income Tax Department has now enabled both online filing and Excel Utility for ITR-2 on the e-Filing portal, allowing eligible taxpayers to start filing returns for Financial Year (FY) 2025-26.

Earlier, the department had already activated ITR-1 (Sahaj) and ITR-4 (Sugam) filing utilities from 15 May 2026. With the release of ITR-2, taxpayers having capital gains, multiple house properties, foreign income, or other complex income structures can now proceed with return filing.

Who Should File ITR-2?

ITR-2 is applicable for Individuals and HUFs who do not have income from business or profession but have income from sources such as:

• Salary or pension
• More than one house property
• Capital gains from shares, mutual funds, property etc.
• Foreign assets or foreign income
• Agricultural income exceeding ₹5,000
• Income exceeding ₹50 lakh
• Directors in companies
• Investment in unlisted equity shares

Taxpayers having business or professional income are required to file ITR-3 instead.

Major Highlights of AY 2026-27 ITR Filing

Some important updates noticed in ITR-2 for AY 2026-27 include:

• Simplified reporting structure
• Revised capital gains reporting
• Additional disclosure requirements for deductions under Sections 80G and 80GGC
• Streamlined representative assessee details
• New reporting fields linked with revised return filing provisions

The updated utility also reflects changes introduced after recent amendments in capital gains taxation.

Online Filing and Excel Utility Both Available

Taxpayers can now choose either:

• Online filing mode directly on the portal, or
• Offline Excel Utility for preparing and uploading JSON files

The official Income Tax portal has confirmed that ITR-2 utilities are now live for AY 2026-27.

Important Advice Before Filing

Although utilities are now available, taxpayers should avoid rushing to file returns immediately without proper reconciliation.

Before filing:

• verify AIS and Form 26AS,
• check TDS entries,
• reconcile capital gains,
• confirm interest income,
• and review prefilled information carefully.

Experts are also advising taxpayers to wait until all TDS and financial information gets fully reflected in AIS and Form 26AS to avoid mismatch notices or defective returns.

Due Date for Filing ITR-2

For most non-audit taxpayers, the due date for filing ITR-2 for AY 2026-27 is expected to be 31 July 2026 unless extended by the government.

Taxpayers can access the filing utilities through the official Income Tax e-Filing portal:

Income Tax e-Filing Portal