While extension of the income tax return (ITR) filing deadline may have brought relief for tax assessees who had delayed filing till the end, there is some pain in store for them. They may have to re-fill their ITR forms in case these had been filled but not submitted or uploaded on the income tax department's e-filing website.

The latest notice on the e-filing website states: " Consequent to changes made in Income tax return filing utilities on account of due date extension and schema changes for AY 2018-19, Please note the below
1. Saved Drafts will not be available in case of Online ITR 1 & 4.
2. In case of Offline utilities, XML has to be re-generated using the latest utilities and to be uploaded. "

Income tax return forms 1 and 4 could be filed completely online and this method allowed users to save drafts of partially/fully filled in forms before submitting. This would allow the filers to review and re-check the information filled in before final submission. However, as per the notice put up on the e-filing website on August 1, all income tax return filers who have saved drafts of partially/fully filled in ITR 1 or 4 online but not submitted/filed them till July 31, 2018, will have tore-fill new/updated forms, says Abhishek Soni, a chartered accountant and CEO, Tax2Win, an income tax return filing website. These new/updated forms have been made available on the e-filing website with effect from Aug 1, 2018, as indicated on the site.

Tax returns could also be filed by downloading the forms in excel/Java utility formats, filling up the same, generating an XML file from them and then uploading the XML file in the concerned tax assessee's account on the e-filing site. As per the e-filing website, if a tax assessee has filled such a form and generated XML file but not uploaded it in his/her account till July 31, 2018, then he/she would now have to re-do the exercise using the new/updated forms and generate XML from these from these updated forms, says Sachin Vasudeva, a practising chartered accountant.

It appears that the extension of the ITR filing deadline from July 31 to August 31, 2018, meant that consequential changes had to be made in the forms and therefore all those who were half-way through the exercise will have to now re-do it using the updated forms.

An individual who is a Resident and Ordinarily resident (ROR), having income from salaries, one house property, income from other sources (other than winnings from lottery, maintaining race horses, etc.), and having total income up to Rs 50 lakh is eligible to use ITR 1.

ITR 4 is meant for individuals, HUFs and partnership firms having "Income from business or profession" on presumptive basis.