The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Sunday announced the revising of the return forms for Financial Year 2019-20 (Assessment Year 2020-21).
CBDT today said in a press note that in order to facilitate taxpayer to avail full benefits with various timeline extension up to June 30, 2020, granted by the government, it has initiated necessary changes in the return forms so that taxpayers could take benefits of their transactions carried out during the period from April 1, 2020, to June 30, 2020, in the return forms for FY 2019-20.
The revised forms will be notified by the end of the month. Once the revised forms will be 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 31st May 2020 to avail benefits for FY 2019-20, CBDT said.
Earlier, due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the government had extended various timelines under the Income Tax Act, 1961. Accordingly, the time for making investments or payments for claiming deduction under various sections of IT Act for the Financial Year 2019-20 has also been extended to June 30, 2020.
Usually, the income-tax returns forms are notified in the first week of April itself. This year also, the e-filing utility for filing of return for Assessment Year 2020-21 was made available as on April 1, 2020, and the Income-tax Return (ITR) Forms ITR-1 (Sahaj) and ITR-44 (Sugam) for FY 2019-20 were already notified vide notification dated 3rd January 2020.
However, to ensure that the taxpayer is enabled to avail all benefits of the timeline extension due to COVID -19 pandemic, the Return Forms revision is being carried out, Ministry of Finance said in a press note.