Over 41.5 million ITRs for fiscal 2019-20 filed till December 26

Over 4.15 crore taxpayers have already filed their income tax returns (ITR) for assessment year 2020-21 (FY2019-20) till December 26, the Income Tax Department said on Sunday.

As the deadline to file ITR by individuals nears, the tax department also urged people to file their ITR for assessment year (AY) 2020-21 early to avoid last minute rush.

"More than 4.15 crore Income Tax Returns for AY 2020-21 have already been filed till 26th of December, 2020. Hope you have filed yours too!," the department tweeted.

This includes over 2.34 crore taxpayers filing ITR-1, over 89.89 lakh filing ITR-4, over 49.72 lakh ITR-3 and over 30.36 lakh filing ITR-2.

The deadline to file ITR by individual taxpayers for FY2019-20ends on December 31, 2020, while the same for taxpayers whose accounts require to be audited is January 31, 2021.

The due date has been extended from July 31and October 31, 2020, respectively in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the close of deadline for filing ITR without payment of late fees for FY2018-19 (AY 2019-20), over 5.65 crore returns were filed by taxpayers. The deadline last year was extended till August 31, 2019.

Giving a comparative analysis of the ITRs filed, the I-T department said 4.14 crore ITRs were filed till August 26, 2019, compared to over 4.15 crore filed till December 26, 2020.

Returns in ITR-1 Sahaj can be filed by an ordinarily resident individual whose total income does not exceed Rs 50 lakh, while Form ITR-4 Sugam is meant for resident individuals, HUFs and firms (other than LLP) having a total income of up to Rs 50 lakh and having presumptive income from business and profession.

While ITR-3 and 6 are filed by businesses, ITR-2 is filed by people having income from residential property; ITR-5 is filed by LLP and Association of Persons (AoPs). ITR-7 is filed by person in receipt of income derived from property held under trust or other legal obligation wholly for charitable or religious purposes or in part only for such purposes.