ITR Filing Deadline Will Likely Be Extended On Delayed Form 16 Issuance

To help businesses and individuals to comply with Income Tax related norms, various tax deadlines were extended by the government.

According to an Economic Times report citing chartered accountants the deadline for employers to issue the TDS certificates (Form 16) for the financial year 2019-20 to employees also stands extended to 30 June 2020.

This will mean that if employees get their Form 16s as late as 30 June, it will be difficult to most individuals to file ITRs (income tax returns) for the financial year 2019-20, by 31 July, the usual deadline for tax filing. The CBDT (Central Board of Direct Taxes) is likely to provide extra time to comply with ITR filing.

Further, in previous years whenever an extension was provided to issue Form 16, the deadline for filing ITR has also been extended. In 2019, the deadline to file ITR for 2018-19 was extended to 31 August 2019.

In a taxation Ordinance dated 31 March 2020, the Ministry of Finance extended the last date of filing of original as well as revised income-tax returns for the FY 2018-19 (AY 2019-20) to 30 June 2020.

"It has provided that reduced rate of interest of 9% shall be charged for non-payment of Income-tax (e.g. advance tax, TDS, TCS) Equalization Levy, Securities Transaction Tax (STT), Commodities Transaction Tax (CTT) which are due for payment from 20.03.2020 to 29.06.2020 if they are paid by 30.06.2020. Further, no penalty/ prosecution shall be initiated for these non-payments," the ordinance added.