In the income tax forms notified in May for the assessment year (AY) 2020-21, the tax department had introduced an additional schedule DI (details of investments) for taxpayers to declare the tax-saving investments made between 1 April and 30 June to claim deductions against them in FY19-20.
“It is likely that the tax department would issue a corrigendum stating that schedule DI column is modified to read between 1 April 2020 and 31 July 2020, or they may change the utility itself. But the notified tax forms have to be updated in line with the change," said Sonu Iyer, tax partner and people advisory services leader at EY India.
“CBDT may not notify the entire tax forms again but come out with a notification stating the change of dates to update the forms as per the changes announced," said Naveen Wadhwa, deputy general manager, Taxmann, a tax and accounting firm.
Typically, 31 March is the deadline for making the tax-saving investments for the year but as India went into a nation-wide lockdown on 25 March to prevent the spread of covid-19, the deadline for making tax-saving investments for FY19-20 was extended till 30 June.
In Wednesday’s notification, a few other tax compliance-related deadlines were extended. Among the deadlines extended included the extension of the last date for filing the income tax return for FY19-20 till 30 November 2020. The last date for filing a revised return for FY18-19 has been extended till 31 July. The deadline for linking of PAN card with Aadhaar has been extended further till 31 March 2021.
