The Central Board of Direct Taxes has notified the income tax return (ITR) form for the assessment year 2020-21. The new form comprises savings benefits for individuals, professionals, business units, and Hindu undivided families (HUF) for the investment made between April 1 and June 30.
The Centre has extended date of filing income tax returns for the financial year by three months till November 30 from July 31, and October 31 earlier. All ITR forms, including Sehaj (ITR-1), Form ITR-2, Form ITR-3, Form Sugam (ITR-4), Form ITR-5, Form ITR-6, Form ITR-7, and Form ITR-V, will have separate space for mentioning investments made during the quarter that can be availed as exemptions or deductions.
Taxpayers will also need to answer some new details in Sahaj ITR-1, Form ITR-2, Form ITR-3, and Form Sugam (ITR-4) forms, under which they will be asked for details about power bills over Rs 1 lakh in a year or deposit of Rs 1 crore in the bank account or expenses of around Rs 2 lakh on a foreign trip.
Also read: Deadline for income tax return filing extended till June 30 from March 31
The government in March had also extended the March 31 deadline of filing income taxes till June 30 in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. The interest rate for delayed payments has been reduced from 12 per cent to 9 per cent.
On Friday last week, the Income Tax Department notified the revised Form 26AS, containing details of tax collected or deducted at source, which will now include information about property and share transactions.
With this, Form 26AS has now been revamped to an 'Annual Information Statement', which apart from the TDS/TCS details, will contain comprehensive information relating to specified financial transactions, payment of taxes, demand/refund and pending/completed proceedings undertaken by a taxpayer in a particular financial year that has to be mentioned in the income tax returns.
To implement this, the Budget 2020-21 introduced a new Section 285BB in the Income Tax Act.
The revamped Form 26AS will now come into effect from June 1, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said. Form 26AS is an annual consolidated tax statement that can be accessed from the income-tax website by taxpayers using their Permanent Account Number (PAN).
Also read: Income tax dept revises Form 26AS; now includes real estate, share transaction details