Huge relief for taxpayers! ITR filing deadline extended till July 31, PAN-Aadhaar linkage till March 2021

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Wednesday issued a notification to provide further relief to taxpayers by extending various time limits of compliances. The taxpayers will now have time to file ITR for FY 2018-19 (AY 2019-20) till July 31, 2020 while the due date for income tax return for the FY 2019-20 (AY 2020-21) has been extended to November 30, 2020.

The extension has been provided in reference to the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance, 2020 brought by the government on March 31. The ordinance had extended various time limits for meeting the statutory and regulatory compliance requirements across sectors due to the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) to provide relief to taxpayers.

In order to provide relief to small and middle class taxpayers, the date for payment of self-assessment tax in the case of a taxpayer whose self-assessment tax liability is up to Rs 1 lakh has also been extended to November, 30. 

The government, however, has clarified that there will be no extension of date for the payment of self-assessment tax for the taxpayers having self-assessment tax liability exceeding Rs 1 lakh. In this case, the whole of the self-assessment tax shall be payable by the due dates specified in the Income Tax Act (IT Act) and delayed payment would attract interest under section 234A of the IT Act.

WATCH Zee Business TV LIVE Streaming Online

The Centre has also extended the time limit for linking biometric Aadhaar with PAN till March 31, 2021. The initial deadline to link the two documents was March 31, 2020 which was further extended till June 30, 2020. 

The government also provided further relief to the salaried whose investment in tax saving instruments have also been delayed due to COVID-19, the finance ministry has now allowed that payments for claiming deduction under Section 80 C, 80 D, 80 G etc for 2019-20 can be done till July 31.