Why has the government announced the extension of tax filing date so much in advance?

In fact, that is a good question. Perhaps, the government wants to avoid a repeat of last year when there were a series of postponements and there was absolutely no clarity on the actual filing date. Now, the government has opted to extend the deadline to file income tax returns for FY21 for individuals from 31-jul to 30-Sep. This is for financial year 2020-21.

This decision was taken after a series of representations received from stakeholders and other business associations. Apart from individuals, the ITR deadline for companies has also been extended by a month till 30-Nov. Now employers have time till 15-Jul to issue Form-16 to employees. The CBDT will be launching its user-friendly revamped filing portal shortly.