The Finance Ministry on Tuesday announced that the deadline for filing income tax returns has been extended to March 15. It further added that the last day for submitting tax audit reports that has been pushed to 15 February, 2022.

“The deadline has been extended due to difficulties being faced by the taxpayers due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation,” a statement released by the department of revenue of the Finance Ministry read. 

Also read: What is ITR, why should you file your tax returns

It further said that the deadline has also been extended due to problems being faced while e-filing of various audit reports under the provisions of The Income-tax Act, 1961.

 “The extension is for all the taxpayer whose books of accounts are required to be audited under any law like Companies Act, Societies Act, LLP Act or income tax act. The new date of uploading your audit report is 15th Feb and the due date for submitting the ITR is 15th March,” Tax and investment expert Balwant Jain said, according to Livemint.com. 

Also read: Income Tax Refund: Know how to check ITR status and intimation notice

He further added that this doesn’t apply to all individual and other tax payers for whom the due date expired on 31 December.

This is the third extension given for filing the income tax return for the 2020-21 fiscal for corporates. The original deadline for filing ITR for corporates was October 31, and those with transfer pricing transactions was November 30.

Also read: Delhi’s work from home order: Which private offices are exempted?

The Income Tax Department had earlier said that it has issued refunds of more than Rs 1.50 lakh crore so far this fiscal year. They included 1.1 crore refunds of Assessment Year 2021-22 amounting to Rs 21,323.55 crore.