The government on Tuesday extended till March 15 the deadline for corporates to file income tax returns for the fiscal ended March 2021.

The deadline to file tax audit report and transfer pricing audit report for 2020-21 fiscal has also been extended till February 15.

This is the third extension given to corporates for filing the income tax return for 2020-21 fiscal.

The original deadline for filing ITR for corporates was October 31, and those with transfer pricing transactions was November 30.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) in a statement said that on consideration of difficulties reported by the taxpayers and other stakeholders due to Covid and in electronic filing of various reports of audit, it has decided to further extend the due dates for the filing of income tax returns and various reports of audit for Assessment Year 2021-22 (2020-21 fiscal).

The last date for filing 2020-21 ITRs without penalty for individual taxpayers ended on December 31, 2021, and nearly 5.89 crore ITR was filed by the due date.

Nangia & Co LLP partner Shailesh Kumar said considering the difficulty of taxpayers in light of the fresh surge of Covid cases in the country and also technical glitches being faced in filing tax audit report and other compliances related to filing ITR, the extension of around one month granted by the government to taxpayers for filing their tax audit report and extension of 15 days for cases covered by transfer pricing compliances is a welcome move and will grant relief to taxpayers.

Vivek Jalan, partner, Tax Connect Advisory, said the extension will benefit the corporates and larger assesees.

AMRG & Associates senior partner Rajat Mohan said the finance ministry has finally accepted the request to allow additional time for taxpayers and audit professionals to complete the tax filings .

“This will come as a substantial relief for all the corporate taxpayers. However, no relief has been extended to salaried class individuals and MSME non-auditable non-corporate businesses,” Mohan added.

Relief

• Companies can file IT returns till March 15

• Tax audit report deadline extended to February 15

• Filers get third extension