Govt announces tax relief on expenditure towards Covid-19 treatment, extends deadlines

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The Centre on Friday announced income-tax exemption on the amount received by a taxpayer from his/her employer or from any other person for the treatment of Covid-19 during FY 2019-20 and subsequent years. The government also provided relief to the family members of a taxpayer falling prey to Covid-19 by providing income-tax exemption on the ex-gratia payment received by them from the employer or from any other person.

This exemption shall be allowed without any limit for the amount received from the employer, while the exemption shall be limited to Rs 10 lakh in aggregate for the amount received from any other person, a Finance Ministry statement said. Necessary legislative amendments for the above decisions shall be proposed in due course of time, the statement added. Further, the ministry has extended the timelines for various tax compliances to address the issue of the inconvenience being faced by the taxpayers due to the pandemic. It had earlier extended timelines for filing income tax and corporate tax returns.

Accordingly, objections to the Dispute Resolution Panel (DRP) and the Assessing Officer under Section 144C of the Income-tax Act, 1961, for which the last date of filing under that section was June 1, 2021 or thereafter, can now be filed within the time provided in that Section or by August 31, 2021, whichever is later. Also, the statement of deduction of tax for the last quarter of FY 2020-21, required to be furnished on or before May 31, 2021, and was extended to June 30, 2021 earlier, can now be furnished on or before July 15, 2021.

Similarly, the certificate of tax deducted at source in Form No. 16, required to be furnished to the employee by June 14, 2021 under Rule 31, as extended to July 15, 2021 vide Circular No. 9 of 2021, may be furnished on or before July 31, 2021, the Finance Ministry said in the statement. The government has also extended the last date of linkage of Aadhaar with PAN under Section 139AA of the Act to September 30, 2021. The last date of payment of amount under 'Vivad se Vishwas' (without additional amount), which was earlier extended to June 30, 2021, has been further extended to August 31, 2021.

Similarly, the last date of payment of amount under 'Vivad se Vishwas' (with additional amount) has been notified as October 31, 2021. The time limit for passing assessment order, which was earlier extended to June 30, 2021, has been further extended to September 30, 2021. the time limit for passing penalty order, which was earlier extended to June 30, 2021, has been further extended to September 30, 2021. For further easing of compliance measures, the Finance Ministry has extended the time limit for processing equalisation levy returns, which was earlier extended to June 30, 2021, to September 30, 2021.

The statement of income paid or credited by an investment fund to its unit holder in Form No. 64D for the previous year (2020-21), required to be furnished on or before June 15, 2021 under Rule 12CB, has been extended to on or before July 15, 2021. The statement of income paid or credited by an investment fund to its unit holders in Form No. 64C for the previous year (2020-21), required to be furnished on or before June 30, 2021, can now be furnished on or before July 31, 2021.

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