Last-minute changes in ITR 2 and 3 hits taxpayers

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ With the income tax department making 47 changes in the ITR 2 form and 53 changes in the ITR 3 form, more than 40 million income taxpayers will be in a tizzy to meet the July 31, 2019, deadline to file their income tax returns, say tax experts.

While these changes were part of the Union Budget 2018-2019 tabled by then finance minister Arun Jaitley on February 1, 2018, tax experts are baffled that it took the income tax department so long to incorporate these changes in the ITR 2 and ITR 3 forms.

‘We are heading for a disaster in income tax return filing this time,’ tweeted Nikhil Vadia, a chartered accountant from Mumbai-based N N Vadia & Co. “Arun Jaitleyji had made these changes in Union Budget 2018-2019, but the income tax department did not make these changes till now,” Vadia says over the phone.

“When various registered associations of CAs raised objections that tax returns could not be filed unless changes made in the law are incorporated in the ITR forms, the IT department started making the changes,” he adds.