As normally all individuals/assessees (individuals, HUFs, Association of Persons, Body of Individuals etc.) whose accounts are not required to be audited need to file their Income Tax Returns (ITRs) on or before the due date of July 31 of the relevant Assessment Year (AY), many assessees would have completed filing their Returns by this time. But the lockdwon to contain the spread of highly contagious Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 not only impacted the economy but forced the authorities to extend many compliance deadlines that hampered the ITR filing process.
One of the important documents – that helps taxpayers file their returns – is Form 26AS, which is available on the Income Tax e-Filing site and traditionally contains the figures of taxable incomes (like salary, interest on FD/securities, dividend, commission/brokerage, professional fee, rent received, etc.) and the tax deducted at source (TDS) from the income.
It also contains details of tax collected at source (TCS) and advance/self assessment taxes paid and from this year, also to include information from various entities like banks, listed companies, mutual funds, registrar, stock exchanges etc.
So, the new detailed Form 26AS is expected to not only help the assessees in filing their return of income by bringing most of the required information at one place, but will also make it difficult for taxpayers to hide any income.
However, with the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) extending the date for furnishing of TDS/ TCS statements and issuance of TDS/ TCS certificates pertaining to the FY 2019-20 further to July 31, 2020 and August 15, 2020 respectively due to COVID-19, updation of Form 26AS and ITR filings get hampered, as furnishing of details given in the TDS/ TCS statements/certificates being the prerequisite for enabling the taxpayers to prepare their return of income for FY 2019-20.
“The date for issuance of Form 16A has been extended. As a result of which Form 26AS is not yet updated. Therefore, we are not filing any returns till the time the Form 26AS gets updated,” said CA Karan Batra, Founder and CEO, CharteredClub.com.