Income tax return filing deadline extended till Jan 10

New Delhi, Dec 30 : The government extended the deadline for filing individual income tax returns (ITRs) by 10 days to January 10, 2021.

The deadline for filing tax returns by businesses has also been extended to February 15, the finance ministry said in a statement.

This is the third time that the government has extended the deadline for filing ITRs – first from the normal deadline of July 31 to November 30, 2020, and then until December 31, 2020.

In addition, the deadline for filing the declaration under the Vivad Se Vishwas direct tax dispute resolution system has been extended by one month to January 31.

In addition, the filing date for the annual GST return for the 2019-2020 fiscal year has been extended by two months until February 28, 2021.

The extension of the deadline until January 10 concerns the production of the ITR for the fiscal year 2019-2020 (tax year 2020-2021) and is intended for individuals whose accounts do not need to be audited and who usually file their tax return using the RTI-1. or ITR-4 forms, as appropriate, the release said.

The deadline for other taxpayers whose accounts need to be audited (including associates of a business) and / or those who need to report on international financial transactions has been extended to February 15, 2021.

Amid a failure in the number of ITRs filed by individuals compared to last year, the finance ministry said the extension of several deadlines had been granted given the ongoing challenges taxpayers face in complying. legal obligations due to the COVID 19 epidemic.

For businesses, the date has been extended from October 31 to November 30 and then to January 31, 2021. It has now been extended to February 15.

Over 4.54 crore ITRs for the 2019-2020 fiscal year (2020-21 valuation year) have been deposited through December 28. During the comparable period last year, 4.77 crore tax returns were filed.

By the close of the deadline for filing ITRs without late fee payment for fiscal year 2018-2019 (tax year 2019-20), more than 5.65 crore has been deposited by taxpayers.

The deadline for providing RTI for fiscal year 2019-2020 for taxpayers who are required to report on specified international / domestic transactions has also been extended to February 15. The filing date of the tax audit report has also been postponed to January 15.

The date of payment of the self-assessment tax for taxpayers whose fiscal responsibility is less than Rs 1 lakh has been postponed to January 10 and February 15 for different categories of taxpayers.

Shailesh Kumar, partner of Nangia & Co LLP, said the last minute extension ensured that the maximum RTI / audit reports are already filed, while only last minute depositors were given extra time to the deposit.

“It should be noted that the interest clock continues and taxpayers who wait to file on a longer schedule will have to pay an additional one month interest (except small taxpayers with a self-assessment tax obligation until at Rs 1 lakh).

“So if everything is final, taxpayers should proceed with the filing, instead of taking advantage of the extended period,” Kumar added.