Income Tax Return Deadline Finally Extended To This Date: But Only For These Taxpayers

We all know what ITR is. An Income tax return (ITR) is a form used to file information about your income and tax to the Income Tax Department. The tax liability of a taxpayer is calculated based on his or her income. As per the income tax laws, the return must be filed every year by an individual or business that earns any income during a financial year.

Every year the department gives a deadline to citizens to file ITR. These deadlines vary based on different situations.

Deadline to file ITR extended

Recently Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) announced that the deadline to file income tax returns (ITR) in audit cases, for the assessment year 2021-22, has been extended till March 15, 2022, whereas, the last day for submitting tax audit reports has been pushed to February 15, 2022.

It should be noted that the decision comes in the backdrop of several chartered accountant associations demanding the government to extend the deadline, as they cited the COVID-19 impact and the glitches in the e-filing portal as the reasons behind the delay in submissions.

The deadline for filing tax audit reports was earlier fixed as January 15, 2022. For submissions to be made following the specified date, a penalty of 0.5 percent of the turnover, or a maximum of Rs 1.5 lakh was to be imposed.

However, the CBDT circular has pushed the deadline to February 15. The deadline for the audit report for transfer pricing has also been extended till February 15. For ITRs to be filed post-audit reports, the last date has been extended from February 15 to March 15, the circular added further.

Taxpayers were facing many issues in filing ITR

“Issues like non-availability of Form No. 3CEB and difficulties in filing forms like 10C and 10B are still continuing. Taxpayers are finding difficulties in completing data for completing accounts, confirmations, reconciliation and prepare inputs for compiling tax audit report,” ICAI had said in a statement.

It should be noted that the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is the largest accounting body representing CAs across the country. It had written to the CBDT last week seeking a reconsideration of the proposed penalties due to late submission.

Also, at the same time, as per the earlier order issued by the CBDT, the last day for filing ITRs for individual taxpayers has lapsed on December 31, 2021.