ITR Filing: Deadline Nears, Centre Refuses to Extend Last Date For 1st Time in 3 Years. Key Points

Over the last two financial years, the government extended the deadline for filing ITRs to ease compliance for taxpayers battling Covid-19 pandemic, however, this year the Centre has said it has no plans to extend it.

New Delhi: The government is not considering extending the last date for filing Income Tax Return as it expects most returns to come in by the due date of July 31, a top official said last week. Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj said over 2.3 crore income returns were filed by July 20 for fiscal 2021-22 and the numbers are picking up. “So far, there is no thinking of extending the last date of filing,” he said. Typically, return filers wait till the last day to file ITRs.

Last fiscal (2020-21), about 5.89 crore ITRs (Income Tax Returns) were filed by the extended due date of December 31, 2021. “People thought the routine now is that dates will be extended. So they were a little slow in filling the returns initially but now on a daily basis, we are getting between 15 lakhs to 18 lakh returns. This will slightly go up to 25 lakh to 30 lakh returns,” he told PTI. “Last time, we had over 50 lakh (filing returns on the last date). This time, I have told my people to be ready for 1 crore (returns filed on the last day),” Bajaj added.

Here are top 5 points for this big story on Income Tax Return filing:

1. As per I-T rules, the deadline for filing ITRs of a fiscal by individual taxpayers who do not need to get their accounts audited is July 31 of the subsequent financial year.
2. Through ITR, a person is supposed to submit to the Income Tax Department of India. It contains information about the person’s income and the taxes to be paid on it during the year.
3. The Income Tax Department has prescribed 7 types of ITR forms, whose applicability will depend on the nature and amount of income and the type of taxpayer.
4. The tax department has launched a new I-T filing portal, which it says “is now very robust to take the increased loads.” The taxpayers’ feedback is that the return form has become very easy to file and that refunds are also quick, the revenue secretary said.
5. Taxpayers should file their ITRs before the due date to avoid paying penalties or other legal consequences.

(With PTI inputs)