Company Income Tax Return (ITR-6)

Overview

Every company registered in India has to file an income tax return each year, whether it earned a profit, made a loss or had no activity. ITR-6 is the form for companies, other than those claiming exemption under Section 11 for charitable or religious property income, which use ITR-7.

ITR-6 is long and detailed. It carries the balance sheet, profit and loss account, tax computation, depreciation, capital gains, loss set-off, minimum alternate tax and a number of disclosure schedules, so it is prepared from finalised, audited accounts. It can only be filed online and is verified with a digital signature certificate (DSC).

This service prepares and files ITR-6 for AY 2026-27 (FY 2025-26) or an earlier year.

Who needs it

• Private limited and public limited companies, including startups and subsidiaries.
• One Person Companies (OPCs).
• Domestic and foreign companies with Indian income.
• Companies with no turnover, or with losses, which still have to file.
• Companies with international or specified domestic transactions that also need Form 3CEB.

Charitable companies that claim exemption under Section 11 are the exception and file ITR-7. Section 8 companies should be checked case by case.

What Zenith does

We start by listening: your company's status, audit position and what has already been filed. We then confirm scope, share a tailored quotation and a checklist specific to the company, and assign a relationship manager.

• Review audited financial statements and the trial balance against the schedules the form needs.
• Check the tax audit position and the audit report acknowledgement and UDIN required in the form.
• Reconcile TDS and TCS credits and advance tax with Form 26AS and AIS.
• Compute taxable income, depreciation, loss set-off and carry-forward, MAT where applicable, and tax payable or refundable.
• Complete the disclosure schedules (shareholding, assets and liabilities, GST turnover, foreign assets, MSME dues).
• Prepare the return in the utility, validate it and file it with a director's DSC.
• Hand over the acknowledgement and a note explaining key figures.

Where a company needs a tax audit, the audit is done by an authorised professional engaged separately; Zenith coordinates but does not sign it unless an eligible professional is separately appointed.

Eligibility and key rules

• Form: ITR-6 for all companies except Section 11 claimants (ITR-7). No documents are attached to the return, but the audit report and certificates must be on file.
• Parts: Part A (general information, balance sheet, profit and loss, trading and manufacturing accounts, other information, quantitative details), Part B (total income and tax computation), plus around 46 schedules such as house property, business income, depreciation, capital gains, current and brought-forward loss set-off, minimum alternate tax (Section 115JB) and MAT credit, donations, start-up deductions, shareholding of unlisted companies and startups, assets and liabilities, GST turnover, foreign assets and foreign source income.
• Audit linkage: where accounts are audited under the Income Tax Act or the Companies Act, the Form 3CA-3CD acknowledgement number and UDIN are entered in the return.
• Recent disclosures: legal entity identifier for specified transactions, MSME classification and dues, capital gains split before and after 23 July 2024, buyback treatment, and a TDS section code in the TDS schedule.
• Verification: by digital signature of an authorised director.
• Presumptive taxation: not relevant to a company in the usual case, so the return is built on books.

Documents required

• Certificate of incorporation, PAN, CIN and registered office details.
• Audited financial statements with notes and the signed auditor's report.
• Trial balance and fixed asset schedule with depreciation.
• Tax audit report (Form 3CA-3CD) with acknowledgement number, if applicable; Form 3CEB where transfer pricing applies.
• Form 26AS, AIS and Form 16A or TDS certificates.
• Advance tax and self-assessment tax challans.
• Shareholding details, including startup and unlisted holdings.
• Details of foreign transactions, loans, brought-forward losses and unabsorbed depreciation.
• GST turnover reconciliation and MSME vendor dues.
• A valid DSC for the director who will verify the return.

Process and timeline

1. Scoping, quotation and document checklist.
2. We review accounts, audit position and reconciliations; open points are raised with you.
3. Tax computation and schedules are drafted and shared for your approval.
4. Tax payable is deposited.
5. The return is validated, uploaded and verified with DSC.
6. The acknowledgement is shared and the file is closed after intimation follow-up.

Timelines depend on how early the audit completes, completeness of data, and authority processing.

Government fees, penalties and due dates

No government fee is charged to file the return.

Item	Rule
Return, accounts subject to audit	31 October of the assessment year (31 October 2026 for AY 2026-27); some categories extended by Circular 07/2026 dated 28 September 2026
Return with international or specified domestic transactions	30 November of the assessment year
Return, no audit	31 July of the assessment year
Belated or revised return	Up to 31 December of the assessment year
Late fee, Section 234F	₹5,000, or ₹1,000 if income is up to ₹5 lakh
Interest	1% per month under Sections 234A, 234B and 234C where tax or advance tax is short

Losses (other than house property loss) cannot be carried forward if the return is late. Companies also have separate ROC filings (such as AOC-4 and MGT-7) that are not covered here.

Amounts and dates above reflect public sources read in October 2026 and change with notifications, so Zenith confirms the current figures in your quotation.

Common mistakes

• Filing the return before the audit is complete and quoting the wrong audit acknowledgement.
• Mismatch between the balance sheet in the return and the one filed with the Registrar.
• Missing TDS credits that appear in Form 26AS.
• Ignoring unabsorbed depreciation and brought-forward losses, or failing to carry them forward.
• Wrong assessment year selected.
• Verification attempted without a DSC registered for the company on the portal.
• Treating a loss-making or dormant company as exempt from filing.

FAQs