The Government Extended ITR Filing Deadline! The New Format of 26AS Form Released! Relief to Middle-Class Taxpayers

With the sudden outburst of the Coronavirus Pandemic, the Central Government has extended the deadline for filing the income tax return for the financial year 2018-19 by one month by 31 July 2020.

By a notification, the CBDT informed that the government has also extended the investment deadline in various financial instruments by one month to 31 July 2020 to get tax exemption during the year 2019-20. Any taxpayer can get an exemption by investing in various investment instruments of tax exemption till 31 July 2020 to get tax exemption in the last financial year.

Govt extends various time limits under the Direct Tax & Benami laws, providing further relief to taxpayers for making compliances under these laws. Notification dt 24th June,2020 issued. Time limits had earlier been extended by Taxation & Other Laws Ordinance on 31st March, 2020. pic.twitter.com/xc2HgjuAzY

— Income Tax India (@IncomeTaxIndia) June 24, 2020

Along with this, the central government has extended the deadline to link Aadhaar card with PAN till 31 March 2021. According to a release issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the deadline for filing income tax returns for the financial year 2019-20 has also been extended to 30 November 2020.

In the aforementioned process, the income tax returns were to be filed by 31 July 2020 or 31 October 2020 can now be filed by 30 November 2020. The deadline for submitting the tax audit report has extended till 31 October 2020.

The Government had also previously introduced the 2020 Taxation and Other Laws (Some Provisions Exempted) Regulations on March 31 to extend various deadlines. This decision was made because of the prevalence of COVID-19, people encountered problems in meeting legal and regulatory compliance requirements in various departments.

Yesterday, the Government issued a further notification. The date of making various investments and payments to claim deductions under Chapter VIA-B of the IT Act has also been extended to July 31, which includes Article 80C (LIC, PPF, NSC), Article 80D (Mediclaim) and Article 80G (donations). Therefore, investments and payments can be made before July 31 to apply for the 2019-20 fiscal year deductions in these sections.

The date for the approval of the order or issuing a notice by the authorities and various compliance under various Direct Taxes and the Benami Law that must be approved/issued/made before December 31, 2020, has been extended to March 31, 2021.

The filing date of the TDS / TCS declarations and issuing the TDS / TCS certificates corresponding to the 2019-20 fiscal year has been extended until July 31, 2020, and August 15, 2020, respectively.

The TDS / TCS rate for non-salary payments to residents has been reduced by 25 percent during the remaining months of the fiscal year and the due date has been extended to file income tax returns for 2019-20 up to November 30, 2020.

 The government has made a significant change in 26AS Form

If you are going to file Income Tax Return (ITR-Income Tax Returns), then inform you that Form 26AS is an important document.

New format – The new format of Form 26AS has released. The new format has included your Aadhaar number, date of birth, mobile number, email ID, and address details. All information will be of the transactions done before June 1, 2020. These transactions will be apparent only if they have crossed a deadline during the financial year.

This information will be available for the first time– besides the tax deducted which paid to the government during the financial year and the sources of several incomes (salary, interest), the updated form will also have information related to the special financial transaction. These include real estate, the purchase, and sale of shares, pre-paid instruments of RBI (eg mobile wallets), cash deposits, payment of credit card bills (both in cash and other ways), cash payments for the purchase of bank drafts details.

Information about tax refunds will also be available – Information related to income tax demand and refund will be also available. Is there a tax demand in your name or have you been given a tax refund for the year? You will also be notified about this in this form.

Legal proceedings – Information about legal proceedings related to income tax will also be given in Form 26AS.

You can download Form 26AS from Income Tax’s website–

Authorities state that before commencing filing Income Tax Return (ITR), examine Form 16, Form16A, and Forn 26AS. If everything is right, then only you can file an income tax return.

You can download Form 26AS from the Traces’ website. To download Form 26AS, log on to the income tax filing website. In My Account section, when you click on the View Form 26AS (Tax Credit) tab, you will reach the Traces’ website.

Hereabouts you can download the summary after entering the assessment year. Also, your D.O.B will act as a password to open Form 26AS.

Relaxation to Small and Middle-Class Taxpayers

To provide relief to small and middle-class taxpayers, the self-assessment tax payment date with a taxpayer whose self-assessment tax liability is up to Rs. 1 Lakh has also been extended until November 30, 2020.

No extension has given to taxpayers whose the self-assessment tax liability is more than Rs 1 lakh

However, there will be no extension of date for payment of self-assessment tax for taxpayers, in which the self-assessment tax liability is more than Rs 1 lakh. In these circumstances, full self-assessment tax will be payable by the due dates defined in the Income Tax Act, 1961 (IT Act) and deferred payment will also have to pay interest under Section 234A of the IT Act.