Income tax return filing deadline for FY 2020-21 extended to December 31, 2021

A late filing fee is levied after the due date. The penalty is Rs 1,000 if income is less than Rs lakh. If income exceeds Rs 5 lakh, a person filing belated ITR will have to pay a penalty of Rs 5,000. Since the due date has been extended to December 31, 2021, this won't apply before the new deadline.

Yes. If income tax, after the reduced tax deducted at source (TDS), advance tax etc., exceeds Rs 1 lakh, then interest at the rate of 1% per month beyond the original deadline of July 31 will continue to be levied on the tax amount, until the return is filed. Tax practitioners thus suggest that returns be filed as soon as possible to avoid further accumulation of interest.

You might be wondering why interest is levied in the first place. The intent behind this move is to dissuade people from delaying the filing of their tax returns. However, in this case, tax experts say that interest is being levied for no fault of taxpayers.

The government had given Infosys, the service manager for the new income tax portal, until September 15 to sort out technical problems. Several issues persist--auto-population of 26AS isn't always available and the previous year's tax returns aren’t accessible by individual taxpayers apart from tax credit mismatch and rectification of challans.

(Graphics by Sanjita Kalra/ET Online)

A TDS certificate issued by your employer, Form 16 provides details of the total salary paid to you less of tax exemptions that you are eligible for and tax deducted on it. It is mandatory for your employer to issue Form 16 if tax on your salary has been deducted during the financial year. If no TDS is deducted, then you can request your employer to provide you the Form 16.

Form-16 consists of two parts: Part-A and Part-B. The former includes details such as the tax deducted by your employer during the year, your Permanent Account Number (PAN), PAN and TAN of your employer. Part-B consists of your gross salary break-up details such as exempt allowances, perquisites etc. Both parts will bear the TRACES logo and a unique certificate ID. While receiving Form-16, check your PAN details. If there is any discrepancy, notify your employer, who will then correct the mistakes and issue you a revised Form-16.

Individual taxpayers need to provide break-up of any interest income that they have received from different sources such as savings account, fixed deposits, etc. in the latest ITR forms. Collect interest certificates from banks and the post office to know the total amount received by you during the financial year via these instruments. Further, make sure to update and check your bank passbook/s for FY 2020-21 to report any other income such as interest from RBI bonds (taxable), tax exempt PPF interest etc. even if tax is not deducted. If tax is deducted on the interest earned from FDs, then you must also collect Form 16A/TDS certificates from the deductor. e.g. banks.

If you have sold property during FY 2020-21, then the buyer will issue you Form-16B showing the TDS deducted on the amount paid to you. You need to deduct TDS if the monthly rent is more than Rs 50,000. Further, you can check Form 26AS for the TDS details.

Further, Form 16D is a TDS certificate issued to contractors or professionals if the payment made to them by an individual/HUF during FY 2020-21 exceeds Rs 50 lakh. The tax is deducted at the time of making payment of a commission, brokerage, contractual payment or profession fee. Do keep in mind that you are required to report the dividend income earned on quarterly basis during the FY in your tax return.

This is your all-inclusive annual tax statement, like your tax passbook containing information of all the taxes that have been deposited against your PAN which include:

a) TDS deducted by employer
b) TDS deducted by banks
c) TDS deducted by any other organisations from payments made to you
d) Advance taxes deposited by you during FY2020-21
e) Self-assessment taxes paid by you

All the taxes deducted in FY 2020-21 should reflect against your PAN in Form-26AS.

If you are planning to continue with the old tax regime at the time of filing ITR, then you must keep handy all documents related to eligible tax-saving investments and expenditure made during FY 2020-21. If you have declared and submitted all the tax-saving proofs relating to claiming exemptions under section 80C, section 80D and HRA exemption etc., then such details will reflect in your Form 16, provided you have opted for old tax regime with your employer. If you missed declaring any tax-saving proof, you can claim the same when you are filing your ITR.

Health insurance premium paid for self, spouse and/or children in FY 2020-21 is eligible for deduction under section 80D so keep the premium paid receipts. If you have taken a home loan from a bank or any other financial institution, do collect the loan statement for FY 2020-21. Interest paid on the home loan can lower your tax liability under section 24.

You are required to report in your ITR any capital gains that you may have earned from the sale of property and/or mutual funds/equity shares, then you will be required to report these. To compute capital gains (long-term or short-term) on sale of house property, land or building one would require the purchase deed and sale deed of the said property. In case of capital gains accrued on the sale of mutual funds and/or shares, one would require statements from the fund houses and/or brokers. Further, in FY 2020-21, taxpayers would have to report transactions related to cryptocurrency as business income if held as stock in trade, or capital gains if held as investments.

Also read: How to report cryptocurrency gains, losses in income tax return

According to section 139AA of the Income-tax Act, an individual is required to quote his/her Aadhaar number while filing ITR. If you don't have your Aadhaar number yet but have applied for the same, then you need to quote your enrolment ID in your ITR form.

If you were holding unlisted shares during FY 2020-21, then you need to disclose your holding in the tax return. In this case, do note that you cannot file your tax return using ITR-1 form even if your sources of income are salary and interest earned on bank account. You will have to use ITR-2, in which, these are the details you will have to provide:

a) Name of Company
b) PAN of Company
c) Opening balance as on April 1, 2020, and cost of acquisition
d) Unlisted shares acquired during the year with date of purchase, face value of shares, issue price per share (in case of fresh issue)/ purchase price per share
e) Unlisted shares sold during the year and the amount received
f) Closing balance as on March 31, 2021, and cost of acquisition.

It is mandatory to provide details of the bank account(s) held by you during FY 2020-21, even if these include any account(s) closed by you during the FY. You are required to mention your bank name, account number, account type and IFS code.