NEW DELHI: The Income Tax department on Sunday notified the IT Return forms 1 through 7 for the Financial Year 2019-20, with a provision for allowing deductions on investments made by them till June 30. The forms also require taxpayers to furnish details of specified categories where high-spending has occured.
For instance, the new notified forms make it mandatory for people to disclose on their ITRs if their deposits in a current account exceed Rs 1 crore or their electricity bill for the fiscal year is Rs 1 lakh or more, or even if they have made an expenditure of Rs 2 lakh or more on foreign travel.
The benefit of simpler forms--ITR 1, ITR 2 and ITR 4--will also not be available to individuals who are either directors in a company or have invested in unlisted equity shares.The new tax forms for Assessment Year 2020-21 and financial year 2019-20 have incorporated changes made in the Income Tax Rules 2020, first announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as a relief measure for taxpayers against Covid-19
Taxpayers including individuals, Hindu Undivided Family (HUF), professionals and businesses, will now be able to avail benefits of savings or investments made from April to June 30.Taxpayers will now also have a dedicated space in the newly notified forms--Sahaj (ITR-1), Form ITR-2, Form ITR-3, Form ITR-4 (Sugam), Form ITR-5, Form ITR-6, Form ITR-7 and Form ITR-V--to describe investments made by them during the quarter ended June 30.
This means that even if a taxpayer failed to invest in PPF, small savings or other instruments eligible for claiming deductions under Chapter-VIA-B of the I-T Act--which includes Section 80C (LIC, PPF, NSC etc.), 80D (Mediclaim) and 80G (Donations)—for the financial year 2019-20, they can still do so by investing in such instruments till June 30, 2020.
The government had earlier extended the deadline for receiving Form-16 from June 20, 2020 to June 30, 2020 via an ordinance dated March 31, 2020. “The due date of the income tax return for FY 2019-20 will be extended from 31st July 2020 & 31st October 2020 to 30th November 2020 and Tax audit from 30th September 2020 to 31st October 2020” Finance Minister had said in her address.
Unlike the general practice of notifying forms in April, this year, the department had notified forms 1 and 2 in January. Due to pandemic, other forms which had to be revised have been notified only now.
