The last date to file Income Tax Return for the previous financial year (2021-22) is 31 October. Now about two weeks are left. If you have not filed your return yet, then you should do it soon. You should avoid filing returns last. Filing of returns at the last minute increases the chances of making mistakes. Then it becomes necessary to file a revised return.
In the last two financial years, the Income Tax Department had extended the last date for filing returns. So this time too many taxpayers are expecting extension of the last date for filing returns. However, nothing has been said about this from the Income Tax Department yet. The department is sending reminders for ITIR filing to taxpayers through SMS and email.
The Income Tax Department has also tweeted about this on Twitter this week. In this, the taxpayers have been appealed to file the return before the deadline. One reason for this is that very few returns have been filed till the first week of July. According to the Income Tax Department data, only 99.20 lakh returns were filed till the first week of July.
This time around 7.5 crore income tax returns are expected to be filed. Looking at this number, the data of 99.20 lakhs seems very less. This means that even one-fourth of the taxpayers have not filed returns so far. In such a situation, the hope of filing 6 crore returns by July 31 seems low.
On the other hand, there are reports of some technical problems in the e-filing website of Income Tax. Proper functioning of the website is essential for return filing. In such a situation, it is believed that the Income Tax Department may extend the deadline for filing returns by a few months. Tax experts say that if the deadline is not extended, most taxpayers will not be able to file returns till July 31.
In case of non-filing of returns by most of the taxpayers on time, the number of taxpayers filing belated returns will increase. As per income tax rules, they have to file belated return by December 31. In such a situation, compliance will increase for those taxpayers on whom tax is levied. Such taxpayers will also have to pay interest on the amount of tax. Due to this there is also a fear of increasing the number of tax disputes.
However, tax experts say that taxpayers should not wait for the extension of the last date to file income tax returns. There are still two weeks left. During this time they should file their returns. If the Income Tax Department does not extend the deadline, then they will have to file a belated return, which will increase their difficulty a bit.
