The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Sunday said that it is revising the Income Tax Return (ITR) forms so that the income taxpayers can avail full benefits of various timeline extensions given by the government amid coronavirus pandemic.
CBDT has initiated necessary changes in the return forms so that income taxpayers could take benefits of their transactions carried out during the period from April 1, 2020 to June 30, 2020 while filing their income tax returns for the financial year 2019-20.
“In order to enable income taxpayers to avail full benefits of various timeline extensions granted by the Government of India due to Covid-19 pandemic situations, the CBDT is revising the return forms for FY 2019-20 (Assessment Year 2020-21) which shall be notified by the end of this month,” a notification from the Ministry of Finance stated on Sunday.
The CBDT said that 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 period of April to June.
“Once the revised formsare 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 May 31, 2020 to avail benefits for FY 2019-20,” it added.
The CBDT stated that due to outbreak of COVID-19, the Government has extended various timelinesunder the Income-tax Act,1961.
“Accordingly, the time for making investment/ payments for claiming deduction under Chapter-VIA-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,” it added.
“Also, the dates for making investment/construction/purchase for claiming roll over benefit in respect of capital gains under sections 54 to section 54GB have also been extended to June 30, 2020. Therefore return forms are being revised to facilitate reporting of the transactions of the relief period,” it further added.