Govt. likely to extend Income Tax Return Filing Due Date for FY 2018-19

Govt. likely to extend Income Tax Return Filing Due Date for FY 2018-19: The government is likely to extend Income Tax Return Filing Due Dat

DEEPAK KUMAR

Jun 4, 2019

Last update on Jun 4, 2019

Govt. likely to extend Income Tax Return Filing Due Date for FY 2018-19: The government is likely to extend Income Tax Return Filing Due Date for Financial Year 2018-19. Deadline to file ITR for FY 2018-19 by Individuals is July 31, 2019. Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has just issued a notification extending the deadline for employers to file their TDS returns and also to issue Form 16 to employees to June 30th and July 10th respectively. If employees get their Form 16 by 10th July 2019 it leaves very less time for thousands of individual tax payers to file their returns if the deadline for filing of ITRs does not extends and remains 31st July 2019. Penalty is payable for filing ITR after due date. A New section 234F was proposed in The Finance Bill, 2017 which is now effective from 1st day of April, 2018. As per Section 234F:

If return is filed betweenafter the due date (31st July)but before the 31st December of the relevant assessment year then penalty/fees of Rs. 5,000/- will be levied.
If return is filed after 31st Decemberbut before 31^stMarchof the relevant assessment yearthen penalty/fees of Rs. 10,000/- will be levied.

In Order to redress genuine hardship of individuals due date for filing ITRs may well get extended very soon. The CBDT has extended the due date of filing of Form 24Q, from May 31, 2019 to June 30, 2019 considering the latest changes made by the tax department in Form 24Q and to redress genuine hardship of employers in timely filing of TDS return in revised format of Form 24Q. CBDT has also extended Due date of issuance of FORM 16 from June 15, 2019 to July 10, 2019.

The CBDT has issued a notification to amend the Form 24Q and Form 16 (TDS certificate in respect of salary income) with effect from May 12, 2019. As per the new format, every employer is required to report the detailed break-up of salary, exempt allowances and deductions claimed and allowed to an employee.

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.

The due date of filing of income-tax return for AY 2019-20 is 31st July 2019. So, it is very likely that the CBDT would also extend the due date of filing of income-tax return considering the extension in due date of issuance of Form 16 and to redress genuine hardship of individuals.

The tax department has made it mandatory for the employer to download and issue Part-B of Form-16 from the TRACES portal only. This has made Part-B of the Form-16 standardised across all employers. Previously, only Part-A of the Form-16 was standardised across all employers.