CBDT finally hears plea of CAs and extends ITR deadline to 31st August

The Central Board Of Direct Taxes(CBDT) vide notification dated 23.07.19 has extended the last date of filing income tax returns for the assessment year 2019-20 from 31st July, 2019 to 31st August, 2019 in case of all taxpayers who are liable to file their Income Tax Returns by the said ‘due date’. The Income Tax Department has extended the due date of filing returns due to the discomfort being experienced by the honest taxpayers. 

Chartered Accountants had been requesting the IT Department to grant extra time to taxpayers to file returns since multiple changes have been introduced in the format of tax returns and because as per the notification of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) issued dated June 4, 2019  the deadline for employers to file their Tax Deducted at Source(TDS) returns has been extended to June 30th and also the deadline to issue Form 16 to employees has been extended to July 10th. 

In the past also the Income Tax department has allowed an extension for a few days whenever the public has faced any difficulty in meeting the deadline. Since taxpayers as well as employers have to pay special attention this year on account of the changes in the forms, it is expected that the department might extend the due date.

Many employees also reported that since the date to issue Form 16 was extended lately, they have not yet received the form  from their employer. The reduce in time gap between the receipt of the form by the employee and return filing date has made it very difficult to file the returns within the required deadline. 
Experts also stated that the amendments to the Form 24Q and Form 16 (TDS certificates) format notified by the CBDT in April which requires employers to give the detailed breakup of all the tax-exempt payments to the employee, detailed break up of salary and deductions claimed and allowed. 

Further, the income-tax return forms for AY 2019-20 were also amended by CBDT in line with the changes made in Form 24Q and Form 16. The move has been made to cross check the information provided by an employee in ITR forms with TDS return filed by his employer. 

With all the changes in return filing formats and the difficulties being faced by the taxpayers the Income Tax Department has finally extended the return filing date to 31st August,2019.