The Income Tax Department has released the first version (v 1.0) of its Excel-based offline utilities for ITR-1 (Sahaj) and ITR-4 (Sugam) on the e-Filing portal, signalling the formal opening of the return-filing season for Assessment Year 2025-26.
| Item | ITR-1 | ITR-4 |
| Utility posted | 30 May 2025 | 30 May 2025 |
| File size | 3.35 MB | 4.61 MB |
| Who can use it? | Resident individuals with total income ≤ ₹50 lakh from salary, one house property, interest & specified LTCG ≤ ₹1.25 lakh, agri-income ≤ ₹5,000 | Resident individuals/HUFs/firms (non-LLP) with income ≤ ₹50 lakh under presumptive schemes 44AD/44ADA/44AE plus LTCG u/s 112A ≤ ₹1.25 lakh |
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Even though Forms were notified in April, the utilities released today are the first tools that actually allow taxpayers to prepare FY 2024-25 returns offline.
Java & online utilities will follow. The department is expected to enable the “Prepare & Submit Online” mode and to release utilities for ITR-2/3/5/6/7 in a phased manner.
The deadline has already been pushed back. CBDT has extended the normal due date to 15 September 2025, giving filers an extra six weeks to adapt to the new forms and utilities.
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Tax practitioners still recommend waiting until mid-June—after Form 16, Form 16A and SFT data are fully uploaded—to avoid mismatch notices and revised returns.
With today’s release, the starter’s pistol for FY 2024-25 compliance has been fired—taxpayers can begin collating data immediately, confident that the tools they need are finally in place.
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