The government on Thursday extended the deadline to file an income tax return (ITR) for FY 2020-21or FY21 for most individuals from the earlier deadline of September 30, 2021, to December 31, 2021. The extension of the deadline is for those individuals whose accounts are not required to be audited and who usually file their income tax return using ITR-1 or ITR-4 forms, as applicable.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman also summoned Infosys chief executive officer Salil Parekh to fix the issues on the new income tax portal. Sitharaman had asked them to fix all the problems by September 15. “On consideration of difficulties reported by the taxpayers and other stakeholders in the filing of Income Tax Returns and various reports of audit for the Assessment Year 2021-22 under the Income-tax Act, 1961(the “Act”), Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has decided to further extend the due dates for filing of Income Tax Returns and various reports of audit for the Assessment Year 2021-22,” the CBDT said in a statement on Thursday.

This was the second time that the finance ministry had extended the due dates for filing income tax returns this fiscal. The usual due date for filing the income tax returns for the year 2020-21 was July 31. Earlier the deadline to file income tax returns was extended to September 30 in the view of coronavirus pandemic in the country. “The due date of furnishing of return of Income for the Assessment Year 2021-22, which was 31st July 2021 under sub-section (1) of section 139 of the Act, as extended to 30th September 2021 vide Circular No.9/2021 dated 20.05.2021, is hereby further extended to 31st December 2021,” the CBDT said in a statement.

The due date of furnishing of the report of audit under any provision of the Act for the previous year 2020-21, has been extended to January 15, 2022.

The due date of furnishing a report from an accountant by persons entering into an international transaction or specified domestic transaction under section 92E of the Act for the previous year 2020-21, is now January 31, 2022.

Again, the IT Department has decided to extend the due date of furnishing of Return of Income for the AY 2021-22, to February 15, 2022, among several other extensions.

The due date of furnishing of Return of Income for the Assessment Year 2021-22, which was December 31, 2021, has also been extended to February 28, 2022.

The due date of furnishing of belated or revised return of Income for the AY 2021-22 has been further extended to March 31, 2022.