To provide more time to taxpayers for furnishing Income Tax Returns (ITR) pertaining to financial year 2019-20, the government has further extended the due date for furnishing of Income-Tax Returns.
For taxpayers who need to get their accounts audited or furnish reports on specific domestic or international transactions, the deadline is now January 31, 2021. For the rest, it has been extended to December 31, 2020 from the earlier limit of November 30.
Several chartered accountant bodies had been urging the government to extend the returns filing timelines this year in view of the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that led to a national lockdown starting March 24. The government had earlier extended the deadline from July 31 to November 30.
“Further, in order to provide relief to small and middle class taxpayers…the due date for payment of self-assessment tax for the taxpayers whose self-assessment tax liability is up to ₹1 lakh had been extended to November 30, 2020,” the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement on Saturday, adding that these deadlines had been extended again ‘to provide relief for the second time to small and middle class taxpayers.’
The due date for payment of self-assessment tax for these taxpayers has now been extended to January 31, 2021 for those who need to furnish audited accounts or report specified transactions. For the rest, the deadline has been extended to to December 31, 2020.
Consequently, the date for furnishing of various audit reports under the Income Tax Act, including tax audit report and report in respect of international/specified domestic transaction has also been extended to December 31, 2020 from the earlier extended deadline of October 31, 2020.