Having difficulty accessing the Income Tax e-Filing Portal? Income Tax dept releases latest advisory about what to do

On September 15, 2025 at 7.30PM The Income Tax Department released an advisory on social media platform X (formerly Twitter)

The Income Tax Department said:

"Having difficulty accessing the Income Tax e-Filing Portal?

• Sometimes, access difficulties with the Income Tax e-Filing Portal may arise due to local system/browser settings. These simple steps often help resolve such issues:
• Delete temporary files → Press Win + R → type temp and %temp% → delete all files.
• Clear browser cache & cookies → Go to Browser Settings → Clear browsing data (cache + cookies)
• Use a different/supported browser → Latest version of Chrome or Edge.
• Open in Incognito/Private Mode → Shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+N OR Ctrl+Shift+P (Firefox
• Disable browser extensions → Especially ad-blockers or privacy tools.
• Update your browser → Ensure you are on the latest version.
• Try a different network → Switch to another Wi-Fi or mobile hotspot.
• Following these checks usually resolves most local access-related difficulties. For further support, please connect with us through our official helpdesk/contact channels.

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With the ITR filing deadline of September 15, 2025, set to end in a few hours, many taxpayers and tax professional associations have been reporting difficulties in filing income tax returns (ITRs) due to glitches on the Income Tax e-filing portal (Incometax.gov.in). Users have been complaining since morning today (September 15, 2025) that the website is either taking too long to get loaded, freezing midway, or failing to process returns.

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The errors taxpayers and chartered accountants (CAs) have been facing could be due to the rush of taxpayers who have been trying to login at the same time to beat the ITR filing deadline. Such a huge rush has caused the server to face overload issues. The server is unable to handle so many requests from taxpayers at the same time.

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Even as taxpayers have been facing ITR filing-related issues due to the Income Tax website glitches, the Income Tax (I-T) Department has suggested some quick browser-related fixes to improve the ITR filing experience.

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Moreover, the income tax department has clarified on social media on September 13, 2025, that AIS now can’t be downloaded via any third party software tools. So now the only way to download an AIS is to first login to the e-filing ITR portal and then navigate to the AIS Compliance Portal (https://ais.insight.gov.in/complianceportal/ais).

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ET Wealth Online's sources who are directly dealing with the AIS Compliance portal said that the AIS Complaince Portal is created for taxpayer's convenience, however by allowing it to be accessed via third party software it was being potentially abused. Hundreds if not thousands of AIS download requests were getting hit on the AIS Compliance Portal at the same time because of bulk ITR filings from these software(s). The source said that to prevent this abuse and to help genuine taxpayers access their AIS, the decision to stop AIS access by third party software tools was taken.


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The Income Tax Department’s suggestions include-
Desktop Browser
Microsoft Edge (88, 89, 90) and above
Chrome (88, 89, 90) and above
Firefox/Mozilla (88, 87, 86) and above
Opera (66, 67, 68) and above
Operating System
Windows 7.x or above, Linux and Mac

Other I-T Department suggestions to handle ITR filing-related situation

• Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) - used to render the User Interface look and feel of the portal. Disabling this will not provide appropriate user experience.
• JavaScript - used to provide enhanced user experience in using User Interface controls. Disabling this will not allow the user to perform any transaction in the portal.
• Cookie - used to store personalised information of the user. Disabling this will not allow the user to login and perform any transaction in the portal.

Valid Class 2 or Class 3 Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) obtained from a DSC provider.
If we look at the taxpayer data given on the official website of the Income Tax Department, as on September 14, 2025, out of 13.43 crore registered taxpayers, as many as 6.69 crore taxpayers have filed their ITRs. The I-T Department has verified 6.04 crore ITRs, while it has processed 4.01 crore of them.