ITAT Appeals Must Be E-Filed From 1 October 2026
From 1 October 2026, an appeal to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal must be filed online through the ITAT’s own e-filing portal. An appeal filed any other way will not be registered. The Tribunal made the switch through a Practice Note dated 30 September 2026, issued with the approval of the President of the ITAT.
If you have received an order from the Commissioner (Appeals) recently, or expect one, this changes how and where you file.
What must now be filed online
- The memorandum of appeal, together with its accompanying documents.
- Cross-objections, stay applications and miscellaneous applications — these follow the same e-filing route as appeals.
- Paper books, documents and petitions in an e-filed appeal — these too go only through the portal.
The portal is the Tribunal’s own, at itat.gov.in/efiling. It is not the Income Tax Department’s e-filing portal, which is where the first appeal to the Commissioner (Appeals) is filed. The two stages now use two different portals.
What happens to paper filings
- From 1 October 2026, a memorandum of appeal that is not filed through the portal, not in the prescribed form, or not signed and verified as prescribed will not be registered by the Registry.
- Appeals that were filed on paper before 1 October 2026 carry on as before: their paper books, documents and petitions stay in physical mode.
How filing works under the Practice Note
- Identifiers: the appellant’s PAN or TAN, mobile number and email ID. Enter the respondent’s email and mobile number too, where you have them.
- Signing: documents that need the appellant’s signature must be digitally signed and verified before upload, by the person authorised to verify the appeal or by an authorised representative. The assessee must specifically authorise the representative to file the appeal.
- Date of filing: the date the signed and verified memorandum is uploaded is the date of presentation — so limitation is measured against the upload, not against when you started the form.
- Acknowledgement: sent by email on filing. After preliminary scrutiny the Registry registers the appeal and emails a Registration Summary, which the Practice Note says it will do within two working days.
- Tracking: the Appeal Dashboard opens with an OTP sent to the mobile and email on record, or a password you set. Authorised representatives can use a password login.
What to do now
- Check the limitation date on any CIT(A) order you have received, and leave room for the portal — a last-day upload that fails is a late appeal.
- Get the digital signature ready for whoever will verify the appeal, and confirm it works before the final week.
- Keep your mobile number and email current. They are how you get into the dashboard and how the Tribunal reaches you. If you are the respondent in a pending appeal, ask the Registry to update them.
- Pending paper appeals need no action to move online; they continue in physical mode.
Filing an appeal against a tax order?
TAXAJ drafts and files income tax appeals before the Commissioner (Appeals) and the ITAT, and handles tax notices before they reach that stage. If your dispute started with a faceless notice, read how to respond under the Faceless Assessment Scheme. More updates are on our income tax news page.
Source: ITAT Practice Note dated 30 September 2026 on mandatory e-filing, and the ITAT e-filing guidelines. Last updated 14 October 2026. This is general information, not advice on any particular case.
