Government extends ITR filing deadline to Mar 15, pushes tax audit date to Feb 15

The deadline to file tax audit report has been increased till February 15 and similarly, the last day for filing income tax returns has also been extended to March 15, 2022. Picture this, taxpayers can file their income tax returns for FY 2020-21 by March 15.

The decision came in response to a request from numerous groups representing chartered accountants, who cited the COVID-19 impact and e-filing site difficulties in their request for a further extension of the deadline.

According to a previous directive issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, the last day for filing ITRs for individual taxpayers was December 31, 2021. (CBDT). The same has now been extended till March 15 according to a recent finance ministry circular.

The deadline for filing tax audit reports was previously set for January 15, 2022. A penalty of Rs 5,000 was to be applied for submissions received after the deadline. 

"The due date of furnishing of Report of Audit under any provision of the Act for the Previous Year 2020-21, which was 31st October, 2021, in the case of assessees referred in clause (aa) of Explanation 2 to sub-section (1) of section 139 of the Act, is hereby extended to 15th February, 2022," according to the finance ministry circular.

Last Monday, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the country's largest accounting organisation representing CAs, wrote to the CBDT requesting a review of the proposed penalty for late filing.

"Issues such as the lack of availability of Form 3CEB and difficulty submitting forms such as 10C and 10B are still present. Taxpayers are having trouble filling out data for accounts, confirmations, reconciliation, and preparing inputs for the tax audit report "According to an ICAI statement.