ITR 1 e-Forms Now Available For FY 2019-20 Tax Returns Filing

After having notified about new income tax return (ITR) forms for the previous financial year 2019-20 last week, the income tax department has made ITR-1 utility (e-form) available for taxpayers on its official website. The form is available in Excel and Java formats.

In a notification on the official income tax e-filing website, the department has notified the availability of the forms for FY 2019-20 (assessment year 2020-21).

"ITR 1 for AY 2020-21 is available for e-Filing. Other ITRs will be available shortly," it said.

The change taxpayers will see in the new forms is that it allows them to claim the deductions for payments made towards tax-saving investments made between 1 April 2020 and 30 June 2020 under the DI Schedule as the Finance Ministry had allowed an extension in tax saving deadline for FY 2019-20, as a part of the COVID-19 related relief.

Many investors were unable to make offline payments due to the nationwide lockdown to comply within the deadline of 31 March 2020 for the financial year.

Note that the financial year has not been extended and has ended on 31 March 2020. It is only the deadline related to making tax-saving investments for FY 2019-20 that has been extended to 30 June 2020.

ITR-1 form is most commonly used by salaried individual taxpayers. For the return filing purposes of FY 2019-20, individuals who are residents (not NRIs), with total income not exceeding Rs 50 lakh, having one house property and agriculture income less than Rs 5,000 during the year, can use ITR-1 form.