Income Tax Return (ITR) Filing Last Date: For those taxpayers whose accounts need to be audited, the Income-Tax Return filing deadline has been extended by two months till January 31, 2021.

 The deadline for filing returns by individual taxpayers for FY 2019-20 has been extended by a month till December 31, the finance ministry said on Saturday.

For those taxpayers whose accounts need to be audited, the Income-Tax Return filing deadline has been extended by two months till January 31, 2021. The government had in May extended the date for filing ITR for FY2019-20 from July 31 to November 30, to give compliance relief to taxpayers.

In a statement, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said, “The due date for furnishing of Income Tax Returns for the taxpayers [for whom the due date (i.e. before the extension by the said notification) as per the Act was July 31, 2020] has been extended to December 31, 2020.”

The due date for furnishing of ITR for the taxpayers, who are required to get their accounts audited (for whom the due date as per the I-T Act is October 31, 2020), has been extended to January 31, 2021, it added.

The CBDT said the deadlines have been extended in order to “provide more time to taxpayers for furnishing of Income Tax Returns”.

Commenting on the ITR filing extension, Saraswathi Kasturirangan, Partner, Deloitte India, said, “While the due date for filing of tax returns has been extended, tax payers need to be aware that any taxes due would attract interest for delay in payments. Hence it is advisable for tax payers to take up the filing of tax returns in a timely manner.”