In a relief to taxpayers, the government has extended the deadline to file income tax returns (ITR) for financial year 2019-20 to November 30, extended the deadline for filing revised ITR for financial year 2018-19 till July 31, 2020 and has given a one-time relaxation to those who have not verified the ITRs filed for assessment years (AY) 2015-16 to 2019-20.
Verification of ITR-V forms for past five years
Income taxpayers who have not verified their ITR for assessment years 2015-16 to 2019-20 can now do the verification. The I-T department has offered a one-time measure for resolving the grievances of taxpayers associated with non-filing of ITR-V (Income Tax Return Verification) for earlier assessment years. ITR-V is a one-page verification document you must submit to the I-T department for them to start processing your return. Taxpayers can sign ITR-V and send it to I-T department’s centralised processing centre (CPC) in Bengaluru or verify through EVC/OTP by September 30. These returns will be processed by December 31.
If the tax returns are not verified, the tax department can proceed against the assessee for defaulting on the filing obligation. This CBDT’s measure will regularise returns that have either become non-existent or have remained pending due to non-filing or non-receipt of respective ITR-V forms. As a rule, after filing the returns, an assessee has to send ITR-V within 120 days by post to CPC Bengaluru or e-verify through net banking, through Aadhaar OTP or through EVC on the income tax department website.
ITR filing for FY20 extended till November 30
The I-T department has extended the deadline for filing ITR for financial year 2019-20 or assessment year 2020-21 to November 30. Earlier, the government extended the deadline for tax-saving investments till June 30 because of the nation-wide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. The government had also extended the deadline for filing revised ITR for financial year 2018-19 or assessment year 2019-20 till July 31, 2020.
The government has extended the date to issue Form 16 to employees by employers to August 15, 2020. The government has also reduced the TDS rates applicable for non-salaried payments by 25%. The reduced TDS rates will remain valid till March 31 next year and will also be applicable on fixed deposits, dividend payments from mutual funds and companies. Also, the deadline for furnishing of TDS statements for FY 2019-20 was extended till July 31, 2020 and the date for linking Aadhaar with PAN was extended to March 31, 2021.
ITR forms
An individual can file ITR-1 if his total income is less than `50 lakh. The source of income should be income from salaries, one house property, other sources like interest from bank deposit. If there are any capital gains, then the individual cannot file ITR-1.
Individuals earning up to `50 lakh and declaring it under presumptive taxation scheme should use ITR-4. However, ITR-4 form is not applicable to an individual who is either a director of a company or has invested in unlisted equity shares. Individuals having income from capital gains will have to file ITR-2 form. Also, ITR-2 is applicable for those individuals not having business income but not eligible for ITR 1 (Sahaj) whereas ITR-3 is applicable for individuals having business income, but not eligible for ITR 4 (Sugam).
As a result of the extension of the tax-saving deadline, the ITR forms have been revised and taxpayers can claim the deductions in respect of tax saving investments made between April 1 and June 30, 2020 for FY 2019-20. The taxpayer will have to mention the details in Schedule – DI.
As a part of the government’s move to track high value-spending and transaction, those who have done deposit of over Rs 1 crore in current account, paid electricity bill of over `1 lakh and have spent over `2 lakh on foreign travel will now have to mandatorily file ITRs. However, passport number, details of tenants in case of rented house property have been withdrawn from the recently notified forms, which were required in the forms issued in January this year.
