FY19 Income Tax Returns' filing deadline extended till July 31; PAN-Aadhaar linkage till March 2021

The Centre on Wednesday extended the deadline for filing income tax returns (ITR) for FY 2018-19 by a month to July 31, 2020, and for linking biometric Aadhaar with PAN till March 31 next year.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) through a notification also extended the time limit by a month till July 31, 2020, for making various investments for claiming deductions under the I-T Act, which includes section 80C (LIC, PPF, NSC etc), 80D (mediclaim), 80G (donations) etc, for 2019-20.

The government had in March through the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of certain Provisions) Ordinance, 2020 extended various deadlines under income tax laws till June 30, 2020, following the outbreak of COVID pandemic.

The CBDT issued a notification on June 24, 2020 to provide further relief to taxpayers by extending various time limits of compliances, a statement said.

"The time for filing of original as well as revised income tax returns for the FY 2018-19 (AY 2019-20) has been extended to July 31, 2020," it said.

However, the reduced rate of interest of 9 percent for delayed payments of taxes, levies, etc specified in the Ordinance shall not be applicable for the payments made after June 30, 2020.

Through the Ordinance, the government had reduced the interest on delayed tax payments to 9 percent from 12 percent.

The date for making investment, construction, purchase for claiming roll over benefit, deduction in respect of capital gains under sections 54 to 54GB of the I-T Act has also been further extended to September 30, 2020.

Therefore, the investment, construction, purchase made up to September 30, 2020 shall be eligible for claiming deduction from capital gains, the statement said.

The date for commencement of operation for the SEZ units for claiming deduction under deduction 10AA of the I-T Act has also been further extended to September 30, 2020 for the units which received necessary approval by March 31, 2020.

"The furnishing of the TDS/TCS statements and issuance of TDS/TCS certificates are the prerequisite for enabling the taxpayers to prepare their return of income for FY 2019-20, the date for furnishing of TDS/TCS statement and issuance of TDS/TCS certificate pertaining to the FY 2019-20 has been extended only to July 31, 2020 and August 15, 2020, respectively," it said.

Further, the date for passing of order or issuance of notice by the authorities and various compliances under various direct taxes and Benami Law which are required to be passed/issued/ made by December 31, 2020 has been extended to March 31, 2021.

"Consequently, the date for linking of Aadhaar with PAN would also be extended to March 31, 2021," it added.

Also, the date of furnishing of declaration, passing of order, etc, under the scheme stand extended to December 31, 2020, from December 30, 2020. The due date for filing income tax returns for 2019-20 has already been extended till November 30, 2020.

Hence, the returns of income which are required to be filed by July 31, 2020 and October 31, 2020 can be filed till November 30, 2020.

Consequently, the date for furnishing tax audit report has also been extended till October 31, 2020.

"This makes it apparent that the government realises that businesses need some more time to get back to normalcy. Even the tax offices are not working at their full strength and they may also need additional time to complete the assessments and other proceedings," Nangia & Co LLP Partner Shailesh Kumar said.