The government on Sunday extended the deadline for various Income Tax Law compliances and took relief under the GST Law to help taxpayers overcome difficulties filing such forms.
While income tax compliance, including filing returns for equalization and remittances, reports by multinational corporations, etc., has been extended mainly due to difficulties with electronic filing on the new IT portal, the deadline for the GST amnesty program is as well the filing of the GST declaration Electronic Verification Code (EVC) has been extended to November 30th and October 31st respectively to help taxpayers in times of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The deadline for filing the Form 1 equalization tax return for fiscal year 2020-21 has been extended to December 31 from the original June 30 due date, the Income Tax Department said in a statement.
The quarterly statement in Form 15CC required by merchants for wire transfers for the June and September quarters is now open by November 30th and December 31st, respectively. The original due dates for filing this statement were July 15 and October 15, respectively.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said, taking into account the difficulties reported by taxpayers and other stakeholders in filing certain forms electronically, it had decided to further extend the deadlines for filing these forms electronically.
In a separate statement, the CBDT announced that it would extend the deadline for payments as part of the Vivad Se Vishwas (VsV) direct tax settlement procedure by one month to September 30th. However, taxpayers have the option to make payments by October 31st, with an additional amount of interest.
The deadlines for the electronic submission of reporting forms by pension funds and state funds have also been extended.
The announcements of the pension fund and state fund for investments in India for the June and September quarters to be submitted by July 31st and October 31st would now have to be made by November 30th and December 31st.
The CBDT also extended the deadline for uploading statements received on Form 15G / 15H for the June and September quarters to November 30 and December 31, respectively. The original due dates were July 15 and October 15, respectively.
Shailesh Kumar, partner at Nangia & Co LLP, said in light of the technical glitches in the new income tax portal, taxpayers have many problems meeting compliance deadlines under various regulations, be it filing the equalization tax return or applying for the registration of charitable trusts and others Income tax exemption institutions, quarterly authorized merchant declarations regarding overseas remittances, filing of necessary notices by Sovereign Wealth Funds, CbCR reports by multinational corporations, etc.
“As a result, the government extended the due dates for all of these observances. Not only was the extension made to meet the immediate filing requirements due in August / September 2021, but it was also given medium-term relief to taxpayers for some compliance due in November / December 2021, “said Kumar .
The extension will give taxpayers the much-needed relief and save them from criminal prosecution because they cannot meet the earlier deadlines due to technical malfunctions in the IT portal, he added.
Technical malfunctions have impaired the functionality of the income tax portal www.incometax.gov.in developed by Infosys since it was launched on June 7th.
The Treasury Department had “summoned” Infosys CEO Salil Parekh last week to explain why the portal developed by the software major continues to be plagued by problems.
At the meeting with Parekh on August 23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman expressed “deep disappointment” with the ongoing mishaps for more than two months after the portal was launched and gave him until September 15 to resolve any issues.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been revised by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
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