No change has been made in income-tax return (ITR) forms, only the utility software has been updated, the CBDT said Tuesday, quashing reports circulating on social media about “large-scale changes” in the forms troubling taxpayers.
The policy-making body of the Income Tax Department issued astatement saying the updating process of these forms’ utility software does nothamper the filing of returns, the deadline for which is July 31.
It also said that over 1.38 crore entities have alreadyfiled their income-tax returns till now.
“No change has been made in any of the ITR formsincluding ITR-2 and ITR-3 since the notification made on the April 1, the firstday of the assessment year 2019-20, on April 1.
“There were reports in social media that the taxpayerswere facing difficulties in filing returns of income in ITR-2 and ITR-3 due tolarge-scale changes in the ITR form on 11th July,” the statement by theCentral Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said.
It said the software for e-filing of ITR-2, meant forindividuals and ‘Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs)’ not having income fromprofits and gains of business or profession, and ITR-3, for individuals and HUFshaving income from profits and gains of business or profession, was released onMay 2 and May 10 respectively.
“However, the software utility update is a dynamicprocess and is continuously taken up as per the feedback received from theusers/filers to ease their experience in electronic filing of returns,” itsaid.
This updation, it clarified, does not hamper filing ofreturn as the taxpayers are allowed to file using the utility which isavailable at that point of time.
The CBDT also said that more than 85 lakh taxpayers havefiled returns in ITR-1 till date by using the said utility, which had alsoundergone update later.
“Therefore, the impression that the taxpayers are notable to file return due to changes in ITR form is also not correct as more than1.38 crore taxpayers have already filed their returns by using the utilityreleased till date,” it said.
Even though the utility is being updated regularly to forease of taxpayers, the returns filed by using the previous version of utilitywill continue to be valid, the statement said.
The CBDT also gave the rationale behind the updation of theutility software, using which the returns are filed.
“It is pertinent to state that the updation in utilityof ITR forms is based on feedback and mainly aimed at easing the complianceburden of the taxpayers by facilitating easier e-filing,” it said. For instance, this year the facility ofpre-filling of return forms has been provided based on the informationfurnished in the tax deducted at source (TDS) statements. This facility hasbeen updated in the utility subsequently and this would substantially reducethe efforts of taxpayers in filling of return forms, the CBDT said.