The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has decided to extend the deadline for filing of ITRs and Tax Audits Reports by a month. Given the relentless demands by Chartered Accountants (CAs) and tax consultants, the CBDT has given a breather till October 31. It will also provide some respite to smaller companies too, who are struggling with GST filings.

Last night, the CBDT tweeted: “On consideration of representations recd from across the country, CBDT has decided to extend the due date for filing of ITRs & Tax Audit Reports from 30th Sep, 2019 to 31st of Oct, 2019 in respect of persons whose accounts are required to be audited. Formal notification will follow”.

Practising Chartered Accountant, Sriharsh Tyagarajan told BusinessLine that the new deadline is required because the CBDT has been intermittently changing the background software required for filing the ITRs.

He said, on Thursday, that there was a change in the ITR 6 software. Since all tax-filing is now software-driven, the CBDT will require some time to rework the filing process due to the changes in the software.

Tyagarajan added, the old belief that there would be loss in revenue of the Government, if there is a delay in filing ITRs and Tax Audit Reports is wrong as a considerable share of revenue has already got collected due to Tax Deducted at Source and Advance Tax payments.

Filing ITRs and Tax Audit Reports is primarily an administrative exercise to inform the Income Tax Department about the payable tax. By extending the deadline, there would be no revenue loss to the Government. It will give some relief to the CAs fraternity and smaller companies who are struggling with various tax compliances, he said.