Didn’t file your income tax return? Chill out! The expiration date of the ITR is not over yet

Each year, the due date for filing the income tax return (ITR) used to be July 31 of the respective appraisal year (AY), which was often extended up to 1 month if some issues arose around the date due to various reasons causing difficulties. to those evaluated.

However, this year the situation is completely different due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the national shutdown that was imposed to contain the spread of the highly contagious virus.

As the 2019-20 fiscal year (FY) ended in the middle of the total lockdown on March 31, 2020, several compliance dates were extended, including the due date to file ITR for AY 2020-21.

This year, due to the extension on various compliance dates, the filing of returns could not even get off the ground before July 31, 2020, when filings are typically completed in a normal year.

This was due to the fact that the date for the filing of tax returns deducted at the source (TDS) / taxes collected at the source (TCS) and the issuance of the TDS / TCS certificates corresponding to the fiscal year 2019-20 was extended to 31 July 2020 and August 15, 2020 respectively.

Due to the extension in the expiration date for the supply of TDS / TCS statements and the issuance of TDS / TCS certificates, the update of Form 26AS could not be performed before July 31, 2020.

Since Form 26AS provides compiled data on deposited taxes, including TDS, TCS, Advance Tax, Self-Assessment Tax, etc., it helps taxpayers file their income statement. As a result, ITR filings were hampered due to the unavailability of the updated Form 26AS even on July 31, 2020.

Many taxpayers missed the deadline to make last-minute investments to save taxes, as the 2019-20 fiscal year ended amid the national lockdown, resulting in an extension of the deadline to make investments, first until June 30, 2020 and then until July 31, 2020.

Did you make an investment to save taxes for an extended period? Here’s how to display it in ITR

Then, taxpayers also had the opportunity until July 31, 2020 to make investments to save taxes, before filing their income statement.

As a result, to allow sufficient time for taxpayers to conveniently file their return, the due date for filing the ITR for AY 2020-21 was first extended to November 30, 2020 and subsequently to December 31, 2020 .

So, in case you haven’t filed your ITR yet, you don’t need to worry, as unless you extend it further, you now have one more month, that is, until December 31, 2020 to file.