Deadline for Income Tax Return filing extended to August 31

The Finance Ministry has extended the deadline for filing of Income Tax Returns to August 31. Initially, the last date was July 31. The July 31 deadline was set for most individuals and HUFs. "The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) extends the 'due date' for filing of Income Tax Returns from July 31, 2019 to August 31, 2019 in respect of the said categories of taxpayers," the finance ministry said in a statement.

This extension comes after the government was appealed by many entities to extend the ITR filing date so as to allow sufficient time to tax payers to file their returns.

CBDT had also extended the deadline for employers to file their TDS returns from May 31 to June 30. Consequently, the issuance of Form 16 was also pushed back from June 15 to July 31.

If tax payers do not file their returns before the deadline, then they will be levied with Rs 5,000 penalty - provided they file it by December 31. The late fee is double if the tax payer files the returns between January 1 and March 31.

Additionally, all individual taxpayers are now required to file income tax returns electronically. The only exception to this rule are super senior citizens, who can file returns in paper form. The Form 16 has also been beefed up. Employers now have to provide a detailed break-up of all components, including remuneration received from former employer/s and all tax-related deductions availed of by the employee.

Moreover, in order to make the tax filing process less cumbersome, the Income Tax Department will now provide pre-filled ITR-1 forms. These forms will have your salary, FD interest income and TDS details. So far, these details had to be manually filled by the taxpayer. However, one must keep in mind that this facility for ITR filing is available for the ITR-1 form filed online on the department's e-filing website (incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in). The software will use the taxpayer's PAN details from Form 26AS, the TDS return filed by the employer and the previous year's ITR.

Also read: ITR filing: Who is eligible to file income tax return; last date, penalty, ways to do it