After intense lobbying by chartered accountants and tax professionals, the government has granted a fresh extension to those who have not filed their returns, citing Covid-19 as the reason.
A majority of individual taxpayers, who were earlier required to file their returns by 31 December, have been given another 10 days till 10 January to comply with the statutory requirement, for which the original deadline was 31 July.
The deadline for making declarations under the ‘Vivad se Vishwas’ scheme has also been extended up to 31 January. Further, I-T returns for tax audit assessees can be filed up to 15 February.
Government sources sought to portray the extension as an example of the Centre being responsive to the requirements and pointed out that the additional time given was much more than what was offered in other countries.
