New Delhi, July 16: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Tuesday refuted reports that several changes have been made in income tax returns (ITRs) forms that are making the process of e-filing of ITRs difficult for taxpayers. The clarification by CBDT came after a person on social media claimed that there are 47 changes made in ITR 2 and 53 changes in ITR 3 on July 11, 2019.

Responding to a tweet, CBDT said: "No changes have been made in any of the Income-tax Return (ITR) forms incl ITR-2 & ITR-3 since the notification made on 1st April 2019 i.e on the 1st day of Assessment Year(AY) 2019-20." It stated that only software utility for e-filing of all ITR forms was updated and it was done "to ease compliance burden of taxpayers by facilitating easier e-filing". How to File Income Tax Returns Online at incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in.

"The software utility for e-filing of all ITR forms was released long back: for ITR-2 on 2nd May and ITR-3 on 10th May, 2019 respectively. Software utility update is a dynamic process, done continuously based on feedback received from users, to ease e-filing of ITRs. It is further clarified that updating of utility doesn’t hamper filing of ITR as taxpayers are allowed to file using utility which is available at that point of time," CBDT said. How to File Income Tax Online? 5 Easy Websites Which You Can Use.

CBDT explained that the updation in utility of ITR forms is based on feedback and is aimed at easing the compliance burden of taxpayers by facilitating easier e-filing. "This year, the facility of pre-filling of ITR forms has been provided based on information furnished in TDS statements and has been updated subsequently. Therefore, there are no changes in the notified ITR forms," it said.

"Only the utility has been updated to facilitate the taxpayers. The assertion that numerous changes have been made in ITR-2 and ITR-3 on July 11, 2019, does not give a correct picture," CBDT clarified.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 16, 2019 08:23 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).