The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has notified the new Income Tax Return (ITR) forms for FY 2019-20/ AY 2020-21 (i.e. ITR 1 Sahaj, 2, 3, 4 Sugam, 5, 6, 7 and ITR-V), vide Income-Tax (12th Amendment) Rules, 2020, in line with the amendments made by the Finance Act, 2019, according to CA Club.

Usually, the Income Tax Department notifies the ITR forms in the first week of April of the relevant assessment year. However, “this year, due to the exceptional circumstances, the Dept. has notified all ITR forms in the last week of May. The Dept. has notified the forms without the return filing utility.

It should be noted that for the assessment year 2020-21, the I-T Dept. has notified the ITR forms twice. In the month of January 2020, the Dept. had notified two ITR forms (ITR-1 and ITR-4). Now, in the month of May 2020, all ITR Forms (ITR-1 to ITR-7) have been notified which eventually replace the two previously notified forms.

“When the ITR Forms (ITR 1 and ITR 2) were notified in January 2020, Rule 12 was amended to provide that ITR-1 cannot be used by a person falling under two categories, namely, First, who owns a house property in joint-ownership and second, who has entered into specified transactions mentioned in the seventh proviso to section 139(1), that is, payment of electricity bill in excess of Rs 1 lakh, a deposit of more than Rs 1 crore in a current account, etc.

Immediately after notifying the changes to Rule 12, the government announced to withdraw the prohibition on filing of return in ITR-1 and ITR-4 by a person falling in the above referred categories. The recent notification maintains status-quo by removing these prohibitions. Thus, a person owning a property in joint-ownership or covered under the seventh proviso can file return in ITR-1 or ITR-4 if they fulfil other conditions.

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