Deadline for filing income tax returns extended until 5 August in relief to tax payers

In a last minute decision, the government has extended the deadline for filing income tax returns (ITRs) until 5 August. The official twitter handle of the department said the move was made "in view of difficulties faced by taxpayers."

"In view of the difficulties faced by taxpayers, date for filing of Income Tax Returns for FY 2016-17 has been extended to 5th August, 2017," the I-T department tweeted.

Many tax payers have been complaining of difficulties in filing income tax returns due to various reasons. For one, the linking of Aadhaar and PAN has become a major pain point with many tax payers not even possessing an Aadhaar card. In this backdrop, the decision to extend should come as a major relief for the tax payers.

Reuters

According to PTI, a senior official of the department said the decision to extend the deadline ending today was taken after a meeting of the revenue department and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) was held in the finance ministry on Monday.

The last minute inundation and heavy logging on the official website of the e-filing portal of the department led to the extension of five more days for filing the ITRs by taxpayers.

The department, until Sunday, however had maintained that no extension would be given as already over 2 crore returns have been received and no major glitches on the portal had been detected.

On reports of the e-filing website facing some glitches, a senior official had told PTI that no major glitches have been reported with the department's e-filing website-- http://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/ -- barring a few times when the portal was "interrupted for maintenance".

However, the situation changed on Monday and the extension was declared.

This time, the linking of the Aadhaar number with the PAN (Permanent Account Number) of a taxpayer has been made mandatory for filing of an ITR, beginning July 1.

The department has also asked taxpayers to declare cash deposits made in bank accounts aggregating to Rs 2 lakh or more, post demonetisation between November 9-December 30 last year, in the ITRs.

The ITRs to be filed by 5 August pertain to 2016-17 fiscal or assessment year 2017-18.

If you haven't filed your returns, here's Firstpost's Bindisha Sarang's piece on how to do it. Read about it here.

With inputs from PTI