In order to enable income taxpayers to avail full benefits of various timeline extensions granted by the government due to coronavirus pandemic, the CBDT has revised the return forms for FY 2019-20 (Assessment Year 2020-21), which shall be notified by the end of this month.

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CBDT today said that in order to facilitate taxpayer to avail full benefits with various timeline extension up to June 30, 2020, granted by the government, it has initiated necessary changes in the return forms so that taxpayers could take benefits of their transactions carried out during the period from April 1, 2020 to June 30, 2020 in the return forms for FY 2019-20.

The CBDT said that the necessary modifications in the return forms are being made to allow taxpayers to avail the benefits of their investments/transactions made for the Apr-to-Jun 2020 period.

“Once the revised forms are notified, it will further necessitate the consequential changes in the software and return filing utility. Hence, the return filing utility after incorporating necessary changes shall be made available by 31st May, 2020 to avail benefits for FY 2019-20,” the CBDT said.

It added that that due to coronavirus outbreak, the government has extended various timelines under the Income-tax Act, 1961.

“Accordingly, the time for making investment/payments for claiming deduction under Chapter-VI A-B of IT Act which includes Section 80C (LIC, PPF, NSC etc.), 80D (Mediclaim), 80G (Donations), etc. for FY 2019-20 has also been extended to June 30, 2020. Also, the dates for making investment/construction/purchase for claiming roll over benefit in respect of capital gains under sections 54 to section 54GB has also been extended to 30th June 2020. Therefore return forms are being revised to facilitate reporting of the transactions of the relief period,” the CBDT said.

Income-tax return forms are generally notified in the first week of April. This year too, the e-filing utility for filing of return for Assessment Year 2020-21 was made available on April 1, 2020, while the Income-tax Return (ITR) Forms ITR-1 (Sahaj) and ITR-4 (Sugam) for FY2019-20 (Assessment Year 2020-21), too, were already notified through a notification dated 3rd January, 2020.

“However, to ensure that the taxpayer is enabled to avail all benefits of the timeline extension due to COVID-19 pandemic, the return forms revision is being carried out,” the CBDT said.

"ITR Forms are generally notified immediately after closure of relevant Financial year in March, so that taxpayers can file their ITRs well in time on/before due date of 31 July. In fact, for FY2019-20, the government had notified ITR forms in ITR-1 and ITR-4 (due for filing by 31 July), the Government had in fact issued the forms well in advance in January 2020 itself," said Shailesh Kumar, Director, Nangia Andersen Consulting.

However, owing to unexpected and exceptional circumstances due to COVID-19 and subsequent extensions announced by the government, it might leave taxpayers with lesser time to comply with ITR filing by end of July, Kumar added.

"It would, therefore, be not unreasonable to expect an extension in due date of filing the ITRs as well, which may be announced by the Government subsequently," according to Kumar

First Published:Apr 19, 2020 3:19 PM IST