Last Day To File ITR, Here’s What Will Happen If You Miss The Deadline

Today is the last day to submit income tax returns (ITR) for the assessment year 2023–24. As of the most recent update, more than 6 crore ITRs had been submitted as of July 30 at 6:30 PM. There will be no deadline extensions this year, therefore the income tax agency has urged people to complete the filing procedure as soon as possible. Taxpayers who fail to submit their returns by the deadline risk fines and other repercussions.

According to Section 234F of the Income Tax Act of 1961, anyone who file their ITRs late are subject to a fine of up to Rs 5,000. Small taxpayers must pay a fine of Rs 1,000 if their annual taxable income is less than Rs 5 lakh.
What happens if a taxpayer misses the deadline to submit the ITR is as follows:

Late Fees applied

After the initial deadline has passed, taxpayers can still file their taxes, but a late fee of 5,000 will apply. Such ITRs must all be submitted by December 31. If the taxpayer’s total annual income is less than 5,00,000, the penalty is limited to 1,000. There are no late filing fees for people whose combined income is below the basic exemption threshold.

Interest On Taxable Amount

When a return is filed late, the income tax agency assesses interest at a rate of 1% per month on the taxable amount. After deducting TDS (tax deducted at source), TCS (tax collected at source), advance tax, and any legal reliefs/tax credits, the interest will be applied to the net taxable income. In these situations, even a single day of lateness carries a month’s worth of interest.

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Losses cannot be carried over.

The ability to carry forward losses to subsequent tax years will also be lost if the tax return is not filed by the due date. Unabsorbed depreciation or losses under the heading “income from house property” will, nevertheless, be permitted to be carried forwad

Fine and/or imprisonment

In addition to monetary penalties, failing to file tax returns might result in jail time. Late filing of returns if the tax owed or evaded exceeds 25,000 may result in a fine and a 6- to 7-year prison sentence.
Only after submitting income tax returns can a taxpayer request their refund for additional tax withheld. If taxpayers follow the established deadlines for filing their returns, they are eligible to collect interest on any excess deductions. If ITRs are not submitted on time, there may be a significant delay or the tax refund may not be received at all.

As most tax experts and chartered accountants suggest that the government has no plan to extend the deadline this year, the 31 July date becomes even more important for those who are yet to file their returns to avoid penalties

The income tax department had earlier urged remaining taxpayers to complete the process before the deadline to avoid the last-minute rush.

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Individuals will have to shell out a penalty of up to Rs 5,000 under Section 234F of the Income Tax Act, 1961, while filing belated ITRs. Small taxpayers whose taxable income does not exceed Rs 5 lakh in a financial year have to pay a penalty of Rs 1,000.

In addition to the late fee, any tax amount due will also incur penal interest until it is paid. According to the Income Tax Act, a taxpayer must pay simple interest at the rate of 1 per cent for every month or part of a month, starting from the day immediately following the due date – July 31 – until the actual date of filing the return. So the longer taxpayers delay the process of filing tax returns, the more interest they incur.

How to file I-T return 0nline?

Visit the website incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal.
Login using your PAN card number.
Click on ‘e-file’ and choose 2022-23 as ‘Assessment year’.
Select ITR -1 or ITR-4 depending on your annual income, status and other details.
Select your reason for filing the return and validate your pre-filled information.
Update your ITR details by uploading the relevant documents.
Confirm your details and click on verify and submit. This takes a few minutes.
Select the appropriate verification option under the ‘Taxes Paid and Verification’ tab.
You can e-verify your ITR immediately or within 120 days of filing using the methods listed on the website. The e-verification can be done through Aadhaar OTP, pre-validated bank account, pre-validated demat account or EVC generated through bank ATM. A step-by step guide to filing ITR is also given on the department’s website here.

How can I get an ITR verification form to download?

In recent weeks, the Centre has made it clear that it has no plans to postpone the deadline for taxpayers whose accounts do not require auditing, which is July 31st.
Because the finance ministry has no plans to extend the July 31 deadline, Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra urged individuals who owe income taxes to file their reports as soon as possible last week.

The Income Tax agency urged people to file their forms in order to avoid the last-minute rush in a tweet.

There will be no extension for FY2022-23, just as there were no extensions for the last fiscal year, the IT department has made plain in numerous bulletins. According to Raghuram Trikutam, CEO of Descrypt, “This judgment sets an important precedent for future years, benefiting taxpayers, tax software companies, and CAs, as it allows for greater planning and preparedness.

Several people have urged the administration to extend the due date on social media.
Many others have even expressed dissatisfaction about mistakes they encountered when filing their forms online.