Reversing its earlier decision, the Income Tax Department on Thursday allowed joint owners of single house property to file income tax return using simple Form-1, called Sahaj, or Form-4 , called Sugam.
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Last week, the department had disallowed individual taxpayers owning house property in joint ownership and those who paid Rs 100,000 in electricity bills in a year or incurred Rs 200,000 expense on foreign travel from filing their annual income return using the simple return forms.
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"After the notification, concerns have been raised that the changes are likely to cause hardship in the case of individual taxpayers. The taxpayers with jointly owned property have expressed concern that they will now need to file a detailed ITR Form instead of a simple ITR-1 and ITR-4. Similarly, persons who are required to file return as per the seventh proviso to section 139(1) of the Act, and are otherwise eligible to file ITR-1, have also expressed concern that they will not be able to opt for a simpler ITR-1 Form," the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement.
"It has also been decided to allow a person, who is required to file return due to fulfilment of one or more conditions specified in the seventh proviso to section 139 (1) of the Act, to file his/her return in ITR-1 Form," the statement reads.
The government, which usually notifies forms for filing income tax returns by individuals in April every year, on January 3 notified tax return forms for the assessment year 2020-21 (income earning year April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020).
Returns in ITR-1 Sahaj can be filed by an ordinary resident individual whose total income does not exceed Rs 50 lakh, while Form ITR-4 Sugam is meant for resident individuals, HUFs and firms (other than LLP) having a total income of up to Rs 50 lakh and having presumptive income from business and profession.
First Published:Jan 9, 2020 9:24 PM IST