Deadline for ITR Filing Extended to August 31st

Akash Dubey

25 Jul, 2019

In a recent notification, the Deadline for ITR Filing has been extended to August 31st, 2019 from the due date of July 31^st, 2019.

The ITR filing date has been extended to file ITR for the financial year 2018-2019. The assessment year in the application is 2019-2020.

The notification is applicable for individual taxpayers and some other entities whose books are not required to be audited. However, corporate taxpayers are out of the ambit of this notification.

“It has been reported that some of the taxpayers are facing difficulties in filing income-tax returns due to various reasons including the extension of due date for issue of Form 16 for the Assessment Year 2019-20,” 

– Reads the official notification on Twitter.

The extension of the date for tax return filing is due to the problems faced by some taxpayers as per the CBDT.

The deadline for tax payment can extend in case of difficulties faced by taxpayers, technological hindrance in the system, and also in case of natural calamities in areas where such events are reported.

Reason for the New Notification

The primary reason for the extension of the due date is attributed to the delay in the deadline for the issue of the TDS certificate.

The last date to issue a TDS certificate for Form-16 by employers was delayed by 25 days from June 15to July 10^th, 2019.

The last date to issue the TDS certificate leaves a short period of 21 days to compete with the previous date for filing ITR (July 31^st). Additionally, there is a provision of penalty for late filing of income tax returns.

Such a state of affairs was becoming a dark cloud for the taxpayers to feel panic. Taxpayers and tax professionals across the nation were demanding an extension from CBDT.

Moreover, it will also provide an extension for the PAN-Aadhaar linking initiative of the department.

The notification was preceded by the earlier notification for change in formats of the Income Tax Return and TDS certificates. Additionally, there were changes in the rules for TDS returns by employers

Know More about the Penalty for Late ITR Filing

Earlier Taxpayers could file Income tax Returns by March 31^st of the assessment year. However, the date has been cut short to July 31^st of the assessment year.

Penalty provision for filing return between July 31^st and December 31st is Rs 5000.
If the return is filed between January 1^st and 31^st March, it will attract a penalty of Rs 10000.