File your Income Tax Return by July 31 to avoid late fee, all details here

New Delhi: The last date for filing your Income Tax Return (ITR) is here and you must not wait for an extension, this year. In past two years, the government extended the deadline for filing ITR a couple of times due to Covid-19 pandemic, however, any relief is unlikely this time.

People privy to the inside information say that the dates for filing ITR won’t be extended this year as the government is not contemplating extension of ITR filing date, this fiscal. In last 2 years, the pandemic & lockdown led to restricted activity and hence the government made the relaxation, allowing people to file their taxes without any penalty.

In fact, the rate of filing IT returns has also seen expeditious rise in last few days, as told by Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj. He told media that the department is receiving 15-18 lakh ITR returns on daily basis and till July 20, more than 2.3 crore ITR were filed for the fiscal 2021-2022. About 5.89 crore ITRs were filed in the fiscal 2020-2021 till December 31.

What if you miss the July 31 deadline?

Just a few days to go before the deadline for filing income tax comes to an end for the financial year 2021-22. If anyone fails to submit his income documents for verification by the IT department, he/she will be liable to pay Rs 10,000 penalty.

How much penalty, you will have to pay?

Though July 31 is the last date for filing ITR, you can still do so by paying a late fine till December 31, 2022. If your salary is in the 0-Rs 5 lakh bracket, you will have to pay Rs 1,000 penalty while those having salary above Rs 5 lakh will have to pay fine of Rs 5,000.

For those filing ITR returns manually can also opt for the quicker option via e-filing. You can filed your income tax returns through e-filing portal i.e. https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal.