Articles

CBDT finally extends ITR Filing, Tax Audit (for AY 2020-21) & Vivad se Vishwas Declaration Filing Due Dates amid Break-down of IT Website!! 

December 30, 2020

What a day it has been, with the incometax department's e-filing portal almost succombing and surrendering to the ever-growing traffic and rush on site and the tax professionals and taxpayers struggling to e-file and upload their xml files of returns of income or tax audits. 

Still the person managing and operating the official twitter handle of the Incometax department has been corageous and optimistic enough to upload these number of ITR filings for the day:

"15,08,380 ITRs have been filed upto 1900 hrs today & 1,62,857 ITRs filed in the last 1 hr."

However, finally to the relief of all the tax professionals and taxpayers, a tweet containing the much awaited good news of extension of due dates of ITR filing and tax audit reports for the AY 2020-21, came at 6:03 pm.

For ready reference of our Readers the bird's eye view of the CBDT Press Release concerning the extension in several due dates is given below:

Summary of Due Dates Extension:

(i) Tax Audit: from 31.12.2020 to 15.01.2021

(ii) ITR Filing in Non Auditable Cases: from 31.12.2020 to 10.01.2021

(iii) ITR Filing in Auditable Cases: from 31.1.2021 to 15.02.2021

(iv) Declaration for Vivad se Vishwas: from 31.12.2020 to 31.01.2021.

(v) GST Annual Return for 2019-20: 28.02.2021

For ready reference, the text of the CBDT Press Release is reproduced below:

"Considering the problems being faced by the taxpayers, it has been decided to provide further time to the taxpayers for furnishing of Income Tax Returns, tax audit reports and declaration under Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme. Further, in order to provide more time to taxpayers to comply under various ongoing proceedings, the dates of completion of proceedings under various Direct Taxes &Benami Acts have also been extended. These extensions are as under:

a.            The due date for furnishing of Income Tax Returns for the Assessment Year 2020-21 for the taxpayers (including their partners) who are required to get their accounts audited and companies [for whom the due date, as per the provisions of section 139(1) of the Income-tax Act,1961, was 31st October, 2020 and which was extended to 30th November, 2020 and then to 31st January, 2021] has been further extended to 15th February, 2021.

b.            The due date for furnishing of Income Tax Returns for the Assessment Year 2020-21 for the taxpayers who are required to furnish report in respect of international/specified domestic transactions [for whom the due date, as per the provisions of section 139(1) of the Income-tax Act,1961, was 30th November, 2020 and which was extended to 31st January, 2021] has been further extended to 15th February, 2021.

c.             The due date for furnishing of Income Tax Returns for the Assessment Year 2020-21 for the other taxpayers [for whom the due date, as per the provisions of section 139(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, was 31st July, 2020 and which was extended to 30th November, 2020 and then to 31st December, 2020] has been further extended to 10th January, 2021.

d.            The date for furnishing of various audit reports under the Act including tax audit report and report in respect of international/specified domestic transaction for the Assessment Year 2020-21 has been further extended to 15th January, 2021.

e.            The last date for making a declaration under Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme has been extended to 31st January, 2021 from 31st December, 2020.

f.             The date for passing of orders under Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme, which are required to be passed by 30th January, 2021 has been extended to 31st January, 2021.

g.            The date for passing of order or issuance of notice by the authorities under the Direct Taxes &Benami Acts which are required to be passed/ issued/ made by 30th March, 2021 has also been extended to 31st March, 2021.

Further, in order to provide relief for the third time to small and middle class taxpayers in the matter of payment of self-assessment tax, the due date for payment of self-assessment tax date is hereby again being extended. Accordingly, the due date for payment of self-assessment tax for taxpayers whose self-assessment tax liability is up to Rs. 1 lakh has been extended to 15th February, 2021 for the taxpayers mentioned in para 4(a) and para 4(b) and to 10th January, 2021 for the taxpayers mentioned in para 4(c).

The Government has also extended the due date of furnishing of annual return under section 44 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 for the financial year 2019-20 from 31st December, 2020 to 28th February, 2021.