The Income Tax department has extended the deadline for employers to issue Form 16 TDS certificate for financial year 2018-19 to its employees by 25 days - from 15 June to 10 July. Tax experts say that the income tax department may extend the deadline for filing tax returns as this leaves fewer days for salaried tax payers for filing their income tax returns (ITRs).

The Income Tax department said that the extension of issue date of Form 16 has been done to “redress genuine hardship of deductors". However, the extension would leave the salaried taxpayers with a limited time-frame of just 20 days to file their income tax returns. July 31 is the deadline to file income tax returns though it has been extension many times in the past.

"The extension would leave the salaried taxpayers with a limited time frame of only 20 days to file their income tax returns. A further favorable action can be expected from CBDT and timeline for income tax return filing for individual taxpayer may be extended to mid of August," Nangia Advisors (Andersen Global) Executive Director Neha Malhotra

Also, the due date of filing of TDS (tax deducted at source) statement by employers to Income Tax department in Form 24Q for financial year 2018-19 has been extended by a month till June 30, 2019. Details of salary paid to employees and TDS deducted on such payment get reflected in Form 24Q.

This year, the Income Tax department has revised the format of Form 16 by adding various details to make them more elaborative. The changes in Form 16 format have been made to bring then in parity with latest changes made in ITR (income tax return) forms. The revised format for Form 16 has already been notified by the Income Tax department and came into effect from May 12, 2019.

The change in format of Form 16 will make it easier fill the necessary information from Form 16 into ITRs, say tax experts.

Form 16 is a certificate issued by your employer according to the format prescribed by the Income Tax authorities, listing out various things like the total salary paid to you during the period, the total tax that the employer deducted at source (TDS) and the deductions that you have claimed during the year.

Among the changes in Form 16 this year, the new format of Form 16 asks for putting the allowances under specific provisions like gratuity, HRA, LTA, etc. They are to be disclosed under specific heading for them and the balance are to be included in one residual head.