Now file your Income Tax returns by 31 August

The deadline for filing your income tax returns has been extended by a month. So now, you have till 31 August 2018 to file your returns. Sources say that the deadline has been extended because people were having problems with the new ITR forms that were issued on 5 April 2018.

This decision comes after appeals by several organisations to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to do so. If tax-payers delay the filing of their ITR beyond 31 August, they will have to pay a penalty ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000.

Upon consideration of the matter, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) extends the 'Due Date' for filing of Income Tax Returns from 31st July, 2018 to 31st August, 2018 in respect of the said categories of taxpayers.

— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) July 26, 2018

Incidentally, this is not the first time that the deadline for filing ITR has been extended. In 2012 also the deadline had been extended. At that time, the reason for the extension was a problem with the power grid. In 2013, taxpayers got a five day extension owing to overload. In 2015, the deadline was extended two times - once by a month and again by a week. First time because new ITR forms had been introduced and the second time because e-services were slow. In 2016, the deadline was extended because it fell on a weekend and was immediately followed by a staff strike. Last year also the deadline was extended because taxpayers had not linked their PAN cards with their Aadhar cards.