Comments
If you have yet to file Income Tax Return (ITR) for fiscal year 2021-22 (assessment year 2022-23), you have six days to do it and that too with penalty. Failure to not file ITR could also lead to prosecution.
December 31 is due date not just for filing the original return but also for the revised return. It means if one needs to rectify the mistake in the return filed on or before due date (for example July 31 for salaried class), then she can do that on or before July 31. However, no penalty be levied on revised return.
If you file your return after the due date, you will have to pay interest under Section 234A at the rate of 1 per cent per month or part month on the unpaid tax amount. Then a late fee of ₹5,000 will need to be paid. It shall be reduced to ₹1,000 if the total income is less than ₹5 lakh.
Ved Jain, former President of Institute of Chartered Accounts (ICAI), said after December 31, it will not be possible to file the return for assessment year 2022-23.
Alternative option
The only alternative option will be to file an updated return under section 139(8A) [subject to certain conditions and restrictions stated therein] with additional liability of 25 per cent of the aggregate amount of tax and interest.
It may be noted that “failure to file Income Tax return may lead to prosecution under section 276CC of the Act. With the complete digitisation of all the data of every entity, it has become very easy for tax department to identify non-filers of tax returns and to initiate proceedings against such non-filers /defaulters,” he reminded.
According to Vinod Jain, Chartered Account, it is also important to point out that Income Tax Act mandates all partnership firms, LLPs, and companies to file tax return, irrespective of the fact whether such firm, LLP or the company is dormant with no activity or no transaction during the year. So, “even if there is no income or no transaction during the year, in any partnership firm, LLP or a company, make sure to file return of every partnership firm, LLP and company showing nil income before December 31, 2022, to avoid any penal consequence,” he said.
According to website of the Income Tax Department, as on December 18, over 7.06 crore ITRs have been filed, out of which over 6.43 lakh crore have already been processed. Income Tax Department claims this has resulted in faster issue of refunds with almost a 109 per cent increase in refunds issued in the current financial year. Refunds amounting to over ₹2.27-lakh crore have been issued in FY23 till December 17, 2022 against refunds of over ₹1.35-lakh crore issued during the corresponding period in FY22, a growth of over 68.57 per cent.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.