Now, you have time till Aug 5 to file IT returns

In view of the difficulties faced by taxpayers, the government on Monday extended the date of filing income tax returns to August 5.

The deadline was extended by five days after a last-minute rush of e-fillers on the income tax-filing website. This was followed by a high-level meeting of officials from the revenue department and the Central Board of Direct Taxes.

The government also extended the deadline to link the Aadhaar and PAN cards till August 31, and clarified that it would be sufficient, for now, to quote the Aadhaar number while filing ITRs.

Since the linking of the Aadhaar number with the PAN has been made mandatory to file returns, ITRs will be processed only after the linking has been completed, the finance ministry said.

“For the purpose of e-filing returns, it would be sufficient as of now to quote the Aadhaar or acknowledgement number for having applied for the Aadhaar card on the e-filing website. The actual linking of PAN (Permanent Account Number) with Aadhaar can be done subsequently, but any time before August 31. However, the returns will not be processed until the linkage of Aadhaar with PAN is done,” a finance ministry statement read.The ministry said the deadline was extended following complaints that taxpayers were not able to log on to the e-filing website of the income tax department or link Aadhaar with PAN because of discrepancies reflected in the PAN and Aadhaar database. “While technical snags have been removed already, the main reason for the failure of people to log in is because of last-minute rush and panic,” the ministry said.

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