After 99-Day Wait, Income Tax Dept. Releases ITR-5 Excel Utility for AY 2026-27

In a relief for taxpayers required to file ITR-5, the Income Tax Department has finally released the Excel-Based Utility (Version 1.0) for Assessment Year (AY) 2026-27, ending a wait of 99 days since the notification of the new Income-tax Return forms. The utility, along with the JSON Schema and Validation File, was made available on the Income Tax e-Filing portal on 7 July 2026.

The release enables eligible taxpayers to prepare and file their income-tax returns offline using the Excel utility. The Income Tax Department has also confirmed that the first and latest versions of the utility, JSON schema, and validation files were all released on 7 July 2026, indicating the initial rollout of the filing software for ITR-5.

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Who Can File ITR-5?

ITR-5 is applicable to persons other than:

Individuals;
Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs);
Companies; and
Persons required to file ITR-7.

The form is generally used by partnership firms, Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs), Association of Persons (AOPs), Body of Individuals (BOIs), business trusts, investment funds, estates of deceased or insolvent persons, and other eligible entities.

Delay Finally Comes to an End

Tax professionals had been awaiting the release of the ITR-5 utility as the filing season for AY 2026-27 was already underway. The delayed availability had prevented eligible entities from filing their returns through the offline utility despite the ITR forms having been notified months earlier. With the utility now live, firms and LLPs can begin preparing and validating their returns electronically.

Utility Available with Supporting Files

The Income Tax e-Filing portal has released the following for ITR-5:

Excel-Based Utility (Version 1.0)
JSON Schema
Validation Rules

These files are intended to facilitate accurate preparation and validation of returns before upload to the e-Filing portal.

The release of the ITR-5 utility is expected to accelerate return filing by firms, LLPs, and other eligible entities and reduce uncertainty caused by the prolonged wait for the offline filing software.