New Delhi, Jul 31: The income tax department has extended the deadline to file returns to 5 August. As per the earlier notification, today (31 July) was the last day.
"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.
Earlier, the news agency had reported citing a CBDT officer that there will not be any extension to the deadline.
"The last date for filing of ITRs remains July 31. There are no plans to extend this deadline. The department has already received over 2 crore returns filed electronically.
On reports of the e-filing website facing some glitches, the official had said 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".
The department has also issued advertisements in leading national dailies in the last few days stating that taxpayers should disclose their income "correctly" and file their ITRs on or before 31 July.
The linking of Aadhaar number with the PAN (Permanent Account Number) of a taxpayer has also been made mandatory for filing of an ITR, beginning 1 July.
The department has also asked taxpayers to declare cash deposits made in bank accounts aggregating to Rs 2 lakh or more, post demonetisation between 9 November-30 December last year, in the ITRs.
If you haven't filed your returns, here's Firstpost's Bindisha Sarang's piece on how to do it.
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