Income tax returns (ITR) filing: This is why last date was extended

Income tax returns (ITR) filing: The last date has been extended much to the relief of common taxpayers who were at their wits end about getting it all done on time. Seeing these difficulties, the government stepped in and decided to effect an unheard of change. The most important part in the whole exercise was that this step was being taken to help taxpayers deal with their issues and then file their returns - complete in all respects.  

Nangia Advisors LLP Partner Suraj Nangia explained, "The Income tax department addressed the concerns raised by the taxpayer and tax professionals regarding the legal, technical and practical difficulties faced while filing the Income-Tax return for AY 2018-19."

Difficulties faced by income tax returns filers

Nangia listed the number of top issues that the taxpayers were facing that ensured their efforts were not paying fruit. Nangia said, "The concerns raised by the stakeholders were many, viz. Considerable delay in release of ITR form utilities leading to shortage of time, continuous updation of schema of ITR utilities leading to further delay, delay in updation of Form 26AS which reflects the TDS credit that is available at the time of ITR filing, mandatory penalty for even one day of delay in filing ITR, implementation of GST law adding to the work load since GST reconciliation with books is required."

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Notably, now, The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has extended the Income tax returns filing last date from July 31, 2018 to August 31, 2018, giving a month's breather to all concerned.