Government extends due date of furnishing of Income Tax Returns and Audit Reports - (24 Oct 2020)

Direct Taxation

In view of the challenges faced by taxpayers in meeting the statutory and regulatory compliances due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and imposition of lockdown, the Government brought the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance, 2020 on 31st March, 2020 which extended various time limits. The Ordinance has since been replaced by the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act. The Government issued a Notification on 24th June, 2020 under the Ordinance which, extended the due date for all Income Tax Returns for the FY 2019-20 (AY 2020- 21) to 30th November, 2020.

Consequently, the date for furnishing various audit reports including tax audit report under the Income-tax Act, 1961 has also been extended to 31st October, 2020. The due date for furnishing of Income Tax Returns for the taxpayers who are required to furnish report in respect of international/specified domestic transactions has been extended to 31st January, 2021. Filing of annual return (form GSTR-9/GSTR-9A) for FY19 is optional for taxpayers who had sales below Rs. 2 crore

Further, in order to provide relief to small and middle class taxpayers, the said notification dated 24th June, 2020 had also extended the due date for payment of self-assessment tax for the taxpayers whose self-assessment tax liability is up to Rs. 1 lakh. The interest shall not be levied if the self-assessment tax liability of taxpayer does not exceed Rs. 1 lakh and ITR is filed within the extended due date. Accordingly, the due date for payment of self-assessment tax for the taxpayers who are not required to get their accounts audited was extended from 31st July, 2020 to 30th November, 2020 and for the auditable cases, this due date was extended from 31st October, 2020 to 30th November, 2020.

Tags : ITR DATES EXTENSION