13% of individual taxpayers find it impossible to file ITR by Dec 31: Survey

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has already extended the due date for filing ITRs for FY 2019-20 a couple of times in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Business Desk, ETV Bharat: As the deadline for filing Income Tax Returns (ITR) ends next Thursday, around 13 per cent of individual taxpayers think that it is impossible to file their returns by the due date and want an extension to the deadline, according to a survey by LocalCircles.

When the LocalCircles asked individual taxpayers, “How are you positioned to be able to file your individual income tax return for FY 19-20 by the extended deadline of December 31, 2020?", 48 per cent of the respondents said that they have done it already earlier this year.

In the survey details reviewed by ETV Bharat, 18 per cent of the respondents said that they have filed ITRs in the last couple of months and 13 per cent expressed confidence that they can comfortably file the ITR within the due date.

Other 13 per cent of the total 6,641 respondents said that it is almost impossible to file by December 31, while 8 per cent believed that it would take significant effort to do so before the deadline.

To recall, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) extended the due date for filing ITRs for FY 2019-20 a couple of times in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

While the first extension was from July 31 to October 31, the latest extension was announced on October 24.

As per the CBDT, over 4.23 crore taxpayers have filed their ITRs till December 27.

This includes over 2.38 crore ITR-1 returns, which are meant for individuals having annual income not exceeding Rs 50 lakh from salaries, one house property, interest income, etc.

"More than 4.23 crore Income Tax Returns for AY 2020-21 have already been filed till 27th of December, 2020. Have you filed yours? If not filed as yet, don't wait. File your #ITR for AY 2020-21 TODAY!," tweeted the I-T Department on Monday.