The government had given a major relief to taxpayers by extending several deadlines in the wake of coronavirus pandemic. The last date for filing income tax returns for the financial year 2019-20 was extended to November 30 while the deadline for tax-saving investments in order to get deductions for the financial year 2020 was also extended till July 31. All of these came as part of a relief package announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.  

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"Understanding & keeping in mind the times that we are in, we have further extended deadlines. Now, Tax Saving Investments for FY 2019-20 can be made up to 31st July 2020. We do hope this helps you plan things better,” the income tax department had tweeted earlier, informing about the changes.  

The date for filing TDS return for February and March has been extended to July 31, 2020. Also, the deduction for the contribution to PF, PPF, NSC, donations made up to July 31, 2020, can be claimed in the return for 2020-21. 

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However, if you fail to file your income tax returns within the extended deadline or end up misreporting income, you will have to pay a hefty penalty.  

What are the fines? 

The taxpayers will be asked to pay a fine of Rs 5,000 in case of late ITR filed on or before December 31 of the assessment year under Section 234F of the Income Tax Act. This fine is increased to Rs 10,000 if the taxpayer does not file the return beyond December 31 of the assessment year.  

However, if the taxpayer comes under the bracket of the annual income of less than Rs 5 lakh-a-year, the fine will be Rs 1,000.  

If the income has been underreported, then a fine of 50% of the tax payable on under-reported income is levied. This is in addition to the tax to be paid on income that went underreported. However, If under-reported income is in consequence of any misreporting, the penalty will increase to 200 percent of the amount of tax payable on under-reported income.