IT returns deadline extended
On Monday The income tax (IT) department extended the deadline for e filing of returns by five days, till August 5, after complaints were received that assessees were not able to submit returns.
The department had earlier ruled out extending the deadline for filing returns.
The department also eased the time frame for linking permanent account number (PAN) with Aadhaar by August 30. Assessees can for now simply quote their Aadhaar number or enrollment ID. In view of the difficulties faced by taxpayers,
In view of the difficulties faced by taxpayers, date for efiling of income tax returns for FY 2016-17 has been extended to August 5, 2017.
Last minute inundation and heavy traffic on the website of the E-filing portal led to the extension.
Assessees, particularly those with some discrepancies in their name or year of birth, or any other data on their Aadhaar and PAN cards, were not able to submit returns.Besides, it was reported the site was down for awhile.
Some people for whom PAN and Aadhaar data was not matching had problems and could not file returns.
Complaints From Tax Payers
The department said there were some complaints that the taxpayers were not being able to log on to the filing website or link their Aadhaar with PAN because their names on the permanent account number and Aadhaar databases were not matching.
While technical snags have been removed, the main reason for the login failure was because of last minute rush and panic.
To ease out the panic situation, the department said it would be sufficient as of now to quote the Aadhaar or acknowledgment number for having applied for Aadhaar for the filing of returns.
The actual linking of PAN with Aadhaar can be done subsequently, anytime before August 31, 2017, it said.
However, the returns will not be processed until the linkage of Aadhaar with PAN is done.