Test per-partner compliance with the ICAI 60 tax-audit ceiling effective 1 April 2026. Strict per-partner — no pooling across the firm. Aggregates assignments taken by the same CA across multiple firms.
| Partner | 44AB(a) | 44AB(b) | 3rd proviso | In other firms | Presumptive (excl) | Other audits (excl) | Counted | Remaining | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | 5 | ||||||||
| 52 | 8 | ||||||||
| Firm total | Strict per-partner cap — pooling not permitted | 95 | 120 | ||||||
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) Council notified The Chartered Accountants (Limit on Number of Tax Audits) Guidelines 2025 via Notification No. F. No. 1-CA(7)/234/2025 dated 25 July 2025. The Guidelines come into effect on 1 April 2026 (FY 2026-27 / AY 2027-28) and replace the older Chapter VI of the Council General Guidelines 2008.
The ceiling is 60 tax audit assignments per Chartered Accountant in practice — per partner per financial year. The cap was raised from 45 to 60 effective FY 2014-15 and has been retained at 60 in the 2025 Guidelines. The signing date of the Tax Audit Report determines the year of counting, not the UDIN generation date. From 1 April 2026, ICAI's UDIN portal will block UDIN generation for the 61st tax audit assignment.
Critically: the cap is STRICT PER-PARTNER. A firm with 5 partners has total capacity of 300 tax audits ONLY IF each partner takes ≤60. One partner cannot take 100 while another takes 20 — distribution / pooling across partners is explicitly prohibited. A CA who is a partner in multiple firms or maintains an individual practice has a SINGLE aggregated cap of 60 across all capacities. Part-time practising partners are not counted toward firm capacity.
A CA firm has 3 partners. Partner A handles 45 corporate tax audits + 10 professional 44AB(b) audits. Partner B handles 30 audits and is also a partner in another firm where she takes 12 audits. Partner C handles 40 audits + a separate GST audit practice.
