ITR-1 Sahaj notified for AY 2020-21

The Income Tax Department has notified the income tax returns for assessment year (AY) 2020-21 making it mandatory for assessees to file I-T returns for high-value transactions. The high-value transactions include among others deposits in a current account worth over Rs 1 crore, electricity bill payment of Rs 1 lakh or more, and spending on foreign travel of Rs 2 lakh and above. The department has released the ITR-1 utility (e-form) on its e-filing website available in Excel and Java formats.

Who can file ITR-1 for AY 2020-21?

ITR-1 is filed by the taxpayers whose income is up to Rs 50 lakhs from below-mentioned sources:

• If the income is from one house property
• If the source of income is pension or salary
• If the source of income is other sources
• If the clubbed income of minor or wife is shown, then ITR-1 can be filed only in case their source of income as mentioned in the above points.

Changes in ITR forms for FY 2019-20 or AY 2020-21:

• If you have taxable income as dividend from domestic companies, you are not eligible to file ITR-1 form.
• Those with joint ownership of a house property cannot file ITR-1 or ITR-4.
• Taxpayers need to answer the following questions related to deposits in current accounts, foreign travel and electricity bills in all the ITR forms:

a) “Have you deposited an amount or aggregate of amounts exceeding Rs. 1 Crore in one or more current account during the previous year?"

b) “Have you incurred expenditure of an amount or aggregate of amount exceeding Rs. 2 lakhs for travel to a foreign country for yourself or for any other person?"

c) “Have you incurred expenditure of amount or aggregate of amount exceeding Rs. 1 lakh on consumption of electricity during the previous year?"

• The income tax department has allowed taxpayers the laxity of making certain tax saving investments for FY 2019-20 till 30th June 2020 in view of the coronavirus lockdown. Deductions under Chapter-VIA-B of IT Act which includes Section 80C (LIC, PPF, NSC, etc), 80D (mediclaim) and 80G (donations) will now be allowed for spending till June 30th. The dates for making investment, construction or purchase for claiming roll over benefit in respect of capital gains under sections 54 to section 54GB has also been extended to June 30.

The new ITR forms seek details of all these investments and payments made in between April and June for claiming tax deduction.

Penalty for missing deadline

According to revised norms under the IT act an individual is liable to pay maximum of Rs 10,000 penalty after missing the deadline of ITR filing. While in case an individual total income does not exceed 5 lakhs then a penalty of only Rs 1,000 is applicable. The last date of filing ITR-1 for FY 2019-20 has been extended to November 30, 2020.

The tax department has also revised the I-T return forms to allow assessees to avail benefits of various timeline extensions granted by the government following the Covid-19 pandemic.

  Report