New Delhi: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Monday extended the date for filing income tax returns and audit report to October 15, 2018, from September 30. The income tax department posted on Twitter that the date for all assessees who were liable to file their ITRs for the Assesment Year 2018-19 by September 30, was extended considering representations from the stakeholders. 

The tweet further stated that the liability to pay interest under section 234A of the Income Tax Act will remain. This extension is only valid for those who had to get their accounts audited.

It may be noted that all the companies and other persons whose accounts are required to be audited were to file their income tax returns under Section 44AB and 115JB of the Income Tax Act by September 30 but, now they can file their return by October 15. If the assessees do not file their returns by the due date they will be liable for interest and prosecution. Any unadjusted business losses/capital losses will not be carried forward.

This year onwards late filers will also have to pay a penalty. Those taxpayers who fail to e-file their audit report under section 44AB, a penalty of up to Rs 1.5 lakh may be imposed. 

Worth mentioning here is that the ITR filing by salaried taxpayers and those opting for presumptive income scheme went up by 71 per cent to 5.42 crore till August 31 as per data released by CBDT earlier.
.