Income tax returns cross 58 million hours before deadline, shows data

Income tax returns (ITRs) crossed 58 million on Sunday, the last day for individuals to file returns for financial year 2019-20, with close to 2 million returns filed during the day. As on January 9, 56.4 million returns were filed compared to 56.6 million filed by September 9 in 2019-20, when the due date was August 31. 

In view of the pandemic, the government had extended the deadline for filing returns multiple times in the past. The original deadline for filing ITRs was June 31, 2020, which was extended to November 30 and then to December 31. With several industry representations seeking more time, a 10-day extension was provided until January 10 for ITR filings for individuals and for companies till February 15. “1,797,625 ITRs have been filed up to 6 pm today & 239,013 ITRs filed in the past 1 hour,” it tweeted on Sunday.