The finance ministry has notified the extended due date for filing income tax returns (ITR) for the 2019-20 fiscal.

While the deadline for filing ITR by individual taxpayers has been extended by a month till December 31, the due date for those taxpayers whose accounts need to be audited has been extended to January 31, 2021.

Nangia Andersen LLP Partner Sandeep Jhunjhunwala said although the government had announced the extension of ITR and audit report filing due dates last week, but there was an ambiguity if such extension is available for corporates to whom tax audit and transfer pricing reporting was not applicable, for instance, foreign companies having no associated enterprise in India and yet earning income from Indian sources.

"Today's notification has cleared the air by extending the due dates for such entities as well.

"Consequently, all Indian and foreign companies who are not liable to obtain a tax audit or do not maintain transfer pricing documents can now file ITR by January 31, 2021, whereas individuals not liable to tax audit will have to file their tax returns by December 31, 2020," Jhunjhunwala said.

The government had earlier in May extended various due dates for filing ITRs for the 2019-20 fiscal from July 31 to November 30, to give compliance relief to taxpayers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.