Relief for taxpayers as govt may extend ITR filing deadline for FY19, July 10 last date for employers to issue Form 16

The government may extend the deadline for filing income tax return (ITR) for the financial year 2018-19 as it has already extended the last date for employers to issue Form 16 to its employees.

New Delhi: The government may extend the deadline for filing income tax return (ITR) for the financial year 2018-19 as it has already extended the last date for employers to issue Form 16 to its employees. Usually, the last date to file ITR by individuals is July 31 of every year, but this time the deadline may get extended. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has recently issued a notification extending the deadline for employers to file their TDS returns and also to issue Form 16 to employees to June 30th and July 10th, respectively.

The extension in deadline of filing ITR might be announced by the government because if employees get their Form 16 by July 10, it leaves very less time for them to file their income tax if the last date remains July 30. It is also noteworthy that the government since last year has announced a penalty for filing income tax return after the due date.

Keeping this in mind, it is expected that CBDT might also extend the deadline to file income tax return. Even in the past, the government has extended the due date for filing of ITRs for individuals for several reasons such as giving more time for PAN-Aadhaar linking, income tax e-filing website going down due to heavy rush etc.

Additionally, the CBDT has also extended the due date for filing TDS (tax deducted at source) statement in revised format of Form 24Q and the date for issuing of TDS certificate in Form 16.

According to reports, the CBDT has extended due date for filing of TDS statement for last quarter of FY 2018-19 from May 31, 2019 to June 30, 2019 and the due date for issue of TDS certificate in Form 16 from June 15, 2019 to July 10, 2019.

The extension of deadlines were announced by the taxing body considering the genuine hardships faced by the deductors in timely filing of TDS statement in revised format of Form 24Q. The extension in deadline was earlier provided only to the state of Odisha in the wake of severe disruption of normal life caused by cyclone Fani, but now the last date for filing Form 24Q has been extended to all over the country.