CBDT once again extended the Income Tax Return Filing Due Date for AY 2019-20 (FY 2018-19): In view of the constraints due to the Covid pandemic & to further ease compliances for taxpayers, CBDT extends the due date for filing of Income Tax Returns for FY 2018-19(AY 2019-20) from 31st July, 2020 to 30th September, 2020,vide Notification 56/2020 in S.O. 2512(E) dated 29th July, 2020.
On March 31. 2020 the government has promulgated Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance, 2020 (hereinafter referred to as “Ordinacne 2020”) to provide relaxation in relation to tax matters under direct tax laws, which include ITR Filing due date for AY 2020-21, due to outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent nation-wide lockdown imposed.
It should be noted that there is no extension of the financial year 2019-20.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has vide Notification 35/2020 dated 24.06.2020 further extended the time limits under the Income-tax Act, 1961 and related Acts which were earlier extended by the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance, 2020.
The provisions of the Ordinance, 2020 have been given overriding effect to the provisions of the Income Tax Act and other specified Acts.
The Notification No. 35/2020 dated 24.06.2020 issued by the CBDT should be read in conjunction with the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance, 2020. This is because the notification is issued by the CBDT by exercising the powers given under section 3(1) of the Ordinance and not under the Income Tax Act.
Section 3(1) of the Ordinance explicitly extends the time limit for specific compliance requirements under the Income Tax Act, 1961.
Section 3(1) of the Ordinance, 2020 is relevant to the time extension and other compliance requirements. It states that where any time limit is-
specified in the specified Act (for eg., Income Tax Act, 1961), or
prescribed in the Rules made thereunder (for eg. Income Tax Rules), or
notified in any Notifications (for eg. the last date to link PAN-Aadhaar is notified by a Notification)
and such time-limit falls in the period between 20-03-2020 and 29-06-2020 (or a new notified date)-
then the followings are provided under section 3 of the Ordinance,2020 and completion or compliance of action must be related to the followings-
completion of any proceeding,
the passing of any order,
issuance of any notice, intimation, notification,
sanction or approval or such other action, by any authority, commission or tribunal,
filing of any appeal,
furnishing of any report, document, return, statement or such other records,
under the provisions of the specified Acts which includes Income Tax Act, 1961.
The above provisions are as per the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance, 2020. The above dates have been further extended by CBDT’s Notification No. 35/2020. As stated above, different extended due dates have been specified for different actions unlike the Ordinance where one common date of June 30 is prescribed for all the compliances.
There are two dates to be noted. One is ‘end due date’ which is June 29, 2020 and the other one is ‘end extended date’ which is June 30, 2020. The Ordinance provides relief from the compliances or actions which are required to be done or taken for the period beginning from March 20, 2020 and ending on June 29, 2020 shall be done by June 30. 2020.
At the first instance, the notification has extended June 29, 2020 to December 31, 2020 and June 30, 2020 to March 31, 2021. This means the time limit for all the compliances and other actions which falls during the period from March 20, 2020 to December 31, 2020 has been extended till March 31, 2021. But this time this date of March 31, 2021 is not common for all the actions.
Read more on Section 139 Provisions for filing Return of Income
Due Date of filing of Return and Revised/Belated Return or ITR for AY 2019-20 (FY 2018-19)
On a conjoint reading of section 139(1) and section 139(4), the date of furnishing timely and revised/belated return is as follows-
The Notification No. 35/2020 of 24th June, 2020 vide sub-clause (a) of clause (i) of the first proviso had extended the date to file the revised/belated return of income for AY 2019-20 (FY 2018-19) from March 31, 2020 to 31st July, 2020 in respect of all categories of assessees. In this case, the end date of March 31, 2021 will not apply.
The present Notification No. 56/2020 dated 29th July, 2020 has further extended the date to file the revised/belated return of income for AY 2019-20 (FY 2018-19) to 30th September, 2020.
Hence, the extended due date to file the revised/belated return of income for AY 2019-20 as per Notification No. 56/2020 is as given below-
A further relaxation from interest under section 234A is provided to those categories of resident Individual assessees who are not required to pay advance tax under section 207(2).
A new proviso is inserted in the Notification No. 35/2020 after the second proviso to provide that for the purpose of the second proviso, in case of an individual resident in India referred to in sub-section (2) of section 207 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961), the tax paid by him under section 140A of that Act within the due date (before extension) provided in that Act, shall be deemed to be the advance tax.
Second proviso is related to AY 2020-21 and not AY 2019-20. The new proviso simply provides relief from interest under section 234A since the earlier Notification No. 35/2020 has only given the immunity if the self assessment tax is payable upto Rs. 1 Lakh.
Though the Notification No. 35/2020 has extended the due date of filing the return of income for AY 2020-21 (FY 2019-20) from 31st July to 30th November, 2020 for all individual assessees, it should be noted that there is no immunity provided from the levy of interest u/s 234A for filing of return of income by 30th November, 2020 from the due date specified in section 139(1).
The immunity from levy of interest u/s 234A is provided only in a case where the self assessment tax payable is upto Rs. 1 Lakh. In case the self assessment tax payable is more than Rs. 1 Lakh, interest u/s 234A will be payable on the entire amount of the self assessment tax.
As readers are aware that interest u/s 234A is payable where self assessment tax is required to be paid at the time of filing of return of income after the due date specified in section 139(1). If the tax liability is already paid by way of advance tax or TDS, there will not be any liability to pay interest u/s 234A even for belated filing of return.
Hence those individual assesses who are otherwise not required to pay the advance tax are not liable to pay interest under sections 234B or 234C but liable to pay interest under section 234A if the return is filed after the due date specified in section 139(1). Those individual assessees who are otherwise not liable to pay advance tax could have paid the same by March 31, 2020 (for AY 2020-21) or by 31st July, 2020 as self assessment tax without any levy of interest under section 234A.
But since the due date to file the return of income u/s 139(1) is extended to 30th July, 2020 without any immunity from interest under section 234A, hence it is now provided that any self assessment tax paid u/s 140A within the due date (before any extension) by those resident individual assessees who are not required to pay any advance tax u/s 207(2) shall be treated as advance tax for the AY 2020-21. Once the self assessment tax paid by July 31, 2020 is treated as advance tax, there will not be any liability to pay interest u/s 234A even if the self assessment tax so paid exceeds Rs. 1,00,000.
Section 207(2) provides that the provisions related to payment of advance tax during a previous year shall not apply to an individual resident in India, who—
(a) does not have any income chargeable under the head "Profits and gains of business or profession"; and
(b) is of the age of sixty years or more at any time during the previous year.
In this context it is noteworthy to note that the proviso has referred to the ‘due date (before extension)’ in an ambiguous manner. It could have referred to section 139(1) and the reference to the notification no 35/2020 for the fact of extension.
Read the full text of the Notification No. 56/2020 dated 29.07.2020 on extension of revised/belated return filing date for AY 2019-20 (FY 2018-19)
MINISTRY OF FINANCE
(Department of Revenue)
(CENTRAL BOARD OF DIRECT TAXES)
NOTIFICATION
New Delhi, the 29th July, 2020
TAXATION AND OTHER LAWS
S.O. 2512(E).– In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance, 2020 (2 of 2020), the Central Government hereby makes the following amendment in the notification of the Government of India, Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, Central Board of Direct Taxes, number 35/2020, dated the 24th June, 2020, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii), vide number S.O. 2033(E), dated the 24th June, 2020, namely:-
(i) in the first proviso, in clause (i), in sub-clause (a), for the words, figures and letters “the 31st day of July, 2020” the words, figures and letters “the 30th day of September, 2020” shall be substituted;
(ii) after the second proviso, the following proviso shall be inserted, namely: -
“Provided also that for the purposes of the second proviso, in case of an individual resident in India referred to in sub-section (2) of section 207 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961), the tax paid by him under section 140A of that Act within the due date (before extension) provided in that Act, shall be deemed to be the advance tax:”.
2. This notification shall come into force from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette.
[Notification No. 56/2020/ F. No. 370142/23/2020-TPL]
NIRAJ KUMAR, Dy. Secy. (Tax Policy and Legislation Division)
Download Copy of Notification No. 56/2020 dated 29.07.2020 on extension of revised/belated return filing date for AY 2019-20 (FY 2018-19) in pdf format
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