ITR forms for AY21: CBDT introduces separate table for investments in April-June

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has notified the income tax return (ITR) forms for the assessment year 2020-21. The ITR forms will have a separate table where the taxpayer will be able to provide the details of the investments made between April and June 2020, if they want to claim deductions against them in the financial year (FY) 2019-20.

The deadline for making the tax-saving investments for FY20 was extended from 31 March till 30 June in order to provide relief to the taxpayers, who couldn’t make their tax-saving investments for FY20, as the lockdown was imposed on 25 March 2020 to prevent the spread of covid-19.

“The new forms require a separate table to disclose tax-saving investment made in Q12020 for availing them in FY20. Taxpayers must assess their tax liability for FY20 and make sure they are maximizing their Section 80C benefits if not already done so," said Archit Gupta, founder and CEO - ClearTax, a tax filing and investing portal.

The tax forms are generally notified in the first week of April of the relevant assessment year. However, this year, the tax department had notified the ITR-1 and ITR-4 in January itself. “Now, in the month of May 2020, all ITR Forms (ITR-1 to ITR-7) have been notified, which eventually replace the two previously notified forms,” said Naveen Wadhwa, deputy general manager—R&D, Taxmann, a tax and accounting firm.

The newly notified forms also ask for details such as high spendings and deposits made by the taxpayers. A taxpayer will have to report if he or she has deposited more than ₹1 crore in the financial year in one or more current accounts.

Taxpayers will also have to report if more than ₹2 lakh or more was spent on foreign travel for self or any other person and if they have spent ₹1 lakh or more for electricity bills during the year.

However, the e-filing tax return forms also known as return filling utilities are not updated yet. Taxpayers will be able to file their income tax returns as an when these utilities are updated by the tax department.

This year taxpayers will have time till 30 November to file the income tax returns.

The deadline for filing income tax returns has already been extended for the assessment year 2020-21. The last date for individual taxpayers to file income tax returns (ITRs) for the assessment year 2020-21 was extended to 30 November from the usual 31 July.