Taking in view the genuine difficulties being faced by taxpayers due to the Covid-19 situation, CBDT has further extended the due date for furnishing of belated and revised ITRs for Assessment Year 2019-20 from 30th September 2020 to 30th November 2020. As per the Twitter handle of CBDT, the Order Under section 119(2a) has been issued.

For those who had failed to file on time, the due date was March 31, 2020, which was later extended to June 30, 2020, and again to July 31 and later to September 30. Now, the CBDT has extended the last date for furnishing of belated and revised ITRs for Assessment Year 2019-20 from 30th September 2020 to 30th November 2020.

“The extension granted by the Government for filing income tax returns for FY 2018-19 is on expected lines. On one hand, it allows taxpayers additional time to pay taxes and file ITR for the said FY. On the other hand, it also grants additional time to the Income Tax department to more aggressively pursue it’s campaign to make Taxpayers file their ITR, in whose case some specific financial transactions have been identified and reported. To recapitulate, recently Income Tax department has been sending SMS and e-mails to such Taxpayers with a request to file ITR,” says Shailesh Kumar, Partner, Nangia & Co LLP.

If you as a taxpayer had missed the dates, the extension of the due date will be of help to you.

Under the income tax laws, a failure to file ITR attracts penalty as the filing of ITR is mandatory for every tax assessee who has a taxable income. Even if the tax has been collected through TDS as in the case of a salaried employee, filing of ITR is compulsory. Therefore, if one fails to furnish the ITR within the due date, there will be a fine and the assessee will be penalized.

The filing of ITR after the date but before the end of the relevant assessment year is called Belated Return. A Return of income which has not been furnished on or before the due date specified under section 139(1) is called a belated return.

For filing revised ITR, there could be different reasons such as wrong information furnished in ITR or not furnishing some figures in the returns. One is, therefore, allowed to file Revised ITR within a defined time frame. However, only those who have filed original ITR within the due date is allowed to file a revised return. At times, the government extends the last date for filing ITR from July 31 to August 31 or even later. Still, filing of ITR before that date is considered as an original return.