Income tax return filing deadline extended till August 31

In a major relief to the taxpayers, the central government on Thursday extended the last date for filing income tax returns for the year 2018-19 till August 31.

“Upon consideration of the matter, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) extends the due date for filing of Income Tax Returns from July 31, 2018 to August 31, 2018 in respect of the said categories of taxpayers,” the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

Earlier, individuals and companies, whose accounts were not required to be audited, were mandated to file their income tax returns by July 31.

Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal, informing about the news, appealed the citizens to pay their taxes within the extended due date and contribute in the nation building.

“The last date for submission of income tax has been extended from July 31 to August 31, 2018, I request every taxpayer to submit their income tax by the due date, fulfil their duty as a law-abiding citizen and contribute in the nation building,” Goyal wrote on Twitter.

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Taxpayers and tax professionals praised the tax department for effectively addressing their concerns regarding the legal, technical and practical difficulties while filing the Income-Tax return.

“The concerns raised by the stakeholders were many, viz. considerable delay in release of ITR form utilities leading to shortage of time, continuous updation of schema of ITR utilities leading to further delay, delay in updation of Form 26AS which reflects the TDS credit that is available at the time of ITR filing, mandatory penalty for even one day of delay in filing ITR, implementation of GST law adding to the workload since GST reconciliation with books is required,” Nangia Advisors LLP Partner Suraj Nangia.

However, taxpayers are advised to file their I-T return before July 31 to avoid additional one-month interest under section 234B.

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