The government has extended the last date for filing an income tax return (ITR) for the financial year 2019-20 from July 31, 2020, to November 30, 2020, as said in a press conference on May 13, 2020. The due date for all income-tax return for the financial year 2019-20 will be extended from July 31 and October 31 to November 30, 2020. The date for a tax audit is extended from September 30, 2020, to October 31, 2020.

Earlier, the government had extended the deadline for receiving Form-16 from June 15 to June 30, 2020, via an ordinance dated March 31, 2020.

The deadline has been extended, therefore the taxpayers have more time this year. In order to file your income tax returns, you can go and file:

Follow these steps to file income tax returns offline:

Step 1: Go to the income tax e-Filing portal www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in

Step 2: Then, download the appropriate ITR utility below 'downloads > IT return preparation software'.

Step 3: You have to extract the downloaded utility ZIP file now.

Step 4: Open the utility from the extracted folder.

Step 5: Enter the applicable and mandatory fields of the income tax returns form.

Step 6: Now, validate all the tabs of the ITR form and then, calculate the tax.

Step 7: ‘Generate’ and then ‘save’ the XML.

Step 8: Log in to the e-filing portal by entering user ID (PAN), password, captcha code.

Step 9: Then, click 'login'.

Step 10: Now, press the 'e-file' menu and then click on the link 'income tax return'.

Step 11: You have to do the mentioned on the income tax return page.

• PAN will be auto-populated
• Choose ‘assessment Year'
• Choose 'ITR form number'
• Choose 'filing type' as 'original/revised return'
• Choose 'submission mode' as 'upload XML'

Step 12: Select any one of the mentioned options to verify the income tax return:

• Digital signature certificate (DSC).
• Aadhaar OTP.
• EVC using prevalidated bank account details.
• EVC using prevalidated Demat account details.
• Already generated EVC through my account. Generate an EVC option or bank ATM. The validity of such EVC is 72 hours from the time of generation.
• I would like to e-verify later. Please remind me.
• I don’t want to e-verify this income tax return and would like to send signed ITR-V through normal or speed post to 'centralized processing centre, income-tax department, Bengaluru 560500"

Step 13: Press 'continue'

Step 14: You have to attach the ITR XML file.

Step 15: On selecting,

• DSC as verification option: Attach the signature file generated from DSC management utility.
• Aadhaar OTP as verification option: Enter the Aadhaar OTP received in the mobile number registered with UIDAI.
• EVC through a bank account, Demat account or bank ATM as verification option: Enter the EVC received in the mobile number registered with the bank or Demat account respectively.
• Other two verification options: The ITR will be submitted but the process of filing the ITRs is not complete until it is verified.

The submitted ITR has to be e-verified later by using 'my account > e-verify return' option or the signed ITR-V should be sent to CPC, Bengaluru.

Step 16: Then, ‘submit’ the ITR.

Step 17: To view the uploaded ITRs, visit https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in.