The deadline for availing the benefit of getting ITRs of previous years verified is September 30, 2020, the due of filing ITR for AY 2020-21 has been extended to November 30, 2020 due to the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Assessees are allowed to verify their ITR within 120 days of e-filing the ITR to complete the return filing process.
If verification of ITR is not done within the stipulated time period of 120 days, then it’s treated that the ITR is not filed and the assessee may face prosecution under various sections of the Income Tax Act (ITA) for non-filing of return of income.
Whereas in a few cases, the Income Tax Department starts recovery proceedings even on unverified ITRs filed with ‘Tax Payable’, but ITRs with ‘Tax Refund’ are generally not processed unless they are verified.
In the case of offline filing of ITR, manual submission of the ITR completes the filing process, but the other side, in case of e-filing, it’s mandatory to get the return verified within 120 days from the date of filing of the return online.
A return may be verified either by sending a signed copy of ITR-V to CPC, Bangalore through speed post/ordinary post or by e-verification via OTP.
However, a large number of electronically filed ITRs are still pending with the Income Tax Department as many taxpayers forget to send the ITR-V to the Central Processing Centre (CPC) or get the ITRs e-verified.
Thus, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has decided to provide one-time relaxation for verification of e-filed Income Tax Returns for Assessment Years (AYs) 2015-16 to 2019-20, which may be done by sending a physical copy of ITR-V to CPC, Bangalore, or via EVC/OTP modes latest by September 30, 2020.
Leave a Reply