Last week the government decided to extend a host of timelines for compliances under the Income Tax Act. It has also announced tax exemption for expenditure on Covid-19 treatment and ex-gratia in case of death.

Many taxpayers have received financial help from their employers and well-wishers for meeting their expenses incurred for the treatment of Covid-19. The government has decided to provide income-tax exemption on the amounts received by taxpayers for medical treatment from employers or from any person for treatment of Covid-19 infection since 2019-20. This was done to ensure that no income tax liability arises on this account.

The government also decided to provide an income-tax exemption to ex-gratia payment received from the employer during FY 2019-20 and subsequent years for the families of those who lost a breadwinner to the virus.

“The exemption shall be allowed without any limit for the amount received from the employer, and the exemption shall be limited to Rs 10 lakh in aggregate for the amount received from any other persons. Necessary legislative amendments for the above decisions shall be proposed in due course of time,” the government said in a recent statement.

Following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, taxpayers are facing inconvenience in meeting certain tax compliances and in filing responses to various notices. To ease compliances, the government extended many deadlines.

Saraswathi Kasturirangan, Partner, Deloitte India, said: “The announcement provides significant relief to the beneficiaries of Covid relief. Any financial assistance received by a taxpayer for Covid treatment will be totally tax-exempt. Further financial assistance extended by an employer in the event of death of an employee due to Covid is totally exempt; assistance received from others is tax-exempt up to a total of Rs 10 lakh. These benefits are available for 2019-20 and beyond.”

Here are the new deadlines:

• Linking Aadhaar with PAN: September 30
• Payment under Vivad se Vishwas (without additional amount): August 31
• Payment under Vivad se Vishwas (with additional amount): October 31
• Uploading declarations received from recipients in Form 15G/15H during the quarter ending June 30: August 31
• Statement of Deduction of Tax for the last quarter of 2020-21: July 15
• Certificate of Tax Deducted at Source in Form 16: July 31
• Compliances by taxpayers for claiming exemptions under provisions contained in Section 54 to 54GB: September 30
• Statement of Income paid or credited by an investment fund to unit-holders in Form 64D for 2020-21: July 15
• Statement of Income paid or credited by an investment fund to its unit holder in Form 64C for 2020-21: July 31
• Application under Section 10(23C), 12AB, 35(1)(ii)/(iia)/(iii) and 80G in Form 10A/ Form 10AB: August 31
• Quarterly Statement in Form 15CC: July 31
• Exercising of option to withdraw pending applications under sub-section (1) of Section 245M of the Act in Form 34BB: July 31