Synopsis: The Income Tax Department has issued the excel utility for ITR-5 for AY 2026-27. The offline utility will assist the partnership firms, LLPs, AOPs and other eligible entities in preparing their income tax return offline, generate the required file and upload to the e-filing portal.
The Income Tax Department has made available the ITR-5 Excel Utility for Assessment Year (AY) 2026-27 on its official e-Filing portal. The utility software was released on July 7, 2026 along with the corresponding JSON Schema and rules for validation to help taxpayers in filing their income tax returns before the due dates. The release is part of the department’s phased rollout of income tax filing utilities for different categories of taxpayers. With the availability of ITR-5, eligible non-individual taxpayers can prepare their income tax returns using the offline facility and then submit the prepared JSON file on the income tax website.
Who Should File ITR-5?
ITR-5 is for persons other than individuals, HUFs, companies, and persons filing ITR-7 forms. Entities generally eligible to file ITR-5 include:
- Partnership firms
- Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs)
- Association of Persons (AOPs)
- Body of Individuals (BOIs)
- Cooperative registered societies
- Artificial juridical persons
- Business trusts and investment funds required to file under ITR-5
Companies and entities required to file ITR-7, including certain charitable or religious trusts, are not eligible to use ITR-5. Individual taxpayers who generally file ITR-1 and ITR-2 are not impacted by this release.
How to Download the Utility
- Visit the Income Tax e-filing portal.
- Go to the Downloads section.
- Select Assessment Year 2026-27.
- Choose ITR-5 Excel Utility (Version 1.0).
- The latest Excel Utility (Version 1.0) has a file size of 14.1 MB. The department has also released the JSON Schema (0.97 MB) and Validation Rules document (1.29 MB).
- Download the file and enable macros in Excel.
- Fill in the return, validate it, generate the JSON upload file, and submit it through the portal
The ITR-5 is the newest form that has received its offline utility in this season of filing. It has previously made available its Excel utility for ITR-1 and ITR-4 on May 15, its online facility for ITR-2 on May 27, and online as well as Excel utility for ITR-3 on June 19. Now that ITR-5 is available, most major ITR forms for AY 2026-27 have been made available, giving taxpayers additional time to prepare their filings.
In addition, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has released the new Common Offline Utility for ITR-1 to ITR-4 to Version 1.2.1 for Windows, alongside the first Mac version of the same tool.
Also read: Voluntary Provident Fund (VPF) Tax Rules 2026: Section 80C, Interest Tax, Withdrawal & TDS Explained
Key Tax Filing Deadlines for AY 2026-27
- August 31, 2026: Non-audit business taxpayers
- October 31, 2026: Taxpayers requiring an audit
- November 30, 2026: Taxpayers subject to transfer pricing rules
Why Does the ITR-5 Release Matter?
This has enabled firms in partnership, LLP, AOP, BOI, and other eligible businesses to begin filing their returns without further delay. The importance of filling the correct type of return cannot be ignored because filing an incorrect ITR could lead to a delay in processing the application or could necessitate re-filing the return later. It is important to note that the returns for FY 2025-26 (AY 2026-27) shall still be made under the provisions of Income Tax Act, 1961 despite the enactment of the Income Tax Act, 2025 due to prior income.
