Income Tax Return Filing Deadline Will Not be Extended Beyond Dec 31, Govt Makes Big Announcement

Giving details, Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj said that the Central government has no such proposal to extend the ITR filing deadline.

Income Tax Return Filing Latest News Today: Here comes a big update for the taxpayers, the Central government on Friday made a big announcement and said the deadline for filing Income Tax Return will not be extended. Giving details, Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj said that the Central government has no such proposal to extend the ITR filing deadline. Notably, the due date for filing ITR comes to an end today.

He also added that the income tax return filing is going on smoothly and by 3 PM today, over 5.62 crore returns have been filed in total. “Today, more than 20 lakh returns were filed. This year 60 lakh more returns have been filed,” Tarun Bajaj said during a press briefing.

Income tax return filing is going on smoothly. By 3pm today, 5.62 crore returns have been filed in total. Today, more than 20 lakh returns were filed. This year 60 lakh more returns have been filed: Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj pic.twitter.com/UhonXfIhrk

— ANI (@ANI) December 31, 2021

Earlier, it was being reported that the Centre may extend the deadline to file ITR as the taxpayers were facing technical glitches on new portal of the Income Tax Department while filing the ITR.

The announcement from the Central government comes at a time when the domestic traders body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) earlier this week sent a letter to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urging for an extension of the due date of Income Tax Return (ITR) filing.

The Central government had on December 29 said over five crore income tax returns (ITR) for the financial year ended March 2021 have been filed so far. “More than five crore income tax returns for AY 2021-22 filed till 5:45 pm today!” the income tax department tweeted.

It must be noted that the Income Tax department has already extended the deadline for individual taxpayers to file income tax returns, by five months till December 31, 2021.

For the financial year 2019-20, 5.95 crore ITRs were filed till the extended deadline of January 10, 2021.

Taxpayers who have not e-verified their ITRs for the financial year 2019-20 can complete the verification process by February 28, 2022, as the income tax department has given a one-time relaxation to assessees.

According to law, an ITR, filed electronically without a digital signature, has to be verified electronically through Aadhaar OTP, or net banking, or code sent through demat account, pre-validated bank account and ATM within 120 days of filing the return.