The Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman in her press conference today announced various direct tax-related measures. As per the announcements, the income tax return filing deadline for FY 2019-20 has been extended to November 30, 2020, from July 31, 2020. “Due date for all income-tax return for FY 2019-20 will be extended from July 31, 2020, and 31 October 31, 2020, to November 30, 2020, and tax audit from September 30, 2020, to 31st October 2020,” the FM stated.
This is a much-needed relief for taxpayers as the government has earlier extended the deadline for receiving the Form-16 from June 10, 2020, to June 30, 2020, via an ordinance dated March 31, 2020. The extension has left only one month for the individual taxpayers to file their tax returns before the deadline i.e. July 31, 2020. Chartered accountants and other tax experts were anticipating the extension of the ITR filing deadline for FY 2019-20.
The government has also reduced the TDS rates applicable for non-salaried employees. As per the announcement, to provide more funds to taxpayers, TDS for non-salaried specified payments made to residents and rates of TCS for specified receipts shall be reduced by 25%. The reduced TDS and TCS rates will remain valid until March 31, 2021.
In addition to that, the date of making payments without interest and penalty under Vivad se Vishwas scheme has been extended to December 31, 2020. This is the second extension of the scheme. Earlier the government in the press conference dated March 24, 2020, has announced the extension of Vivad se Vishwas scheme to June 30, 2020.
The Vivad se Vishwas Scheme was announced in the Budget 2020 to allow a one-time settlement of tax dispute between the tax department and the individuals. The settlement can be made without paying any penalty and interest on the tax dispute amount.
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