There are only 1-2 days left for the deadline to file income tax returns. Taxpayers can file income tax returns till July 31 without paying any penalty. Meanwhile, it is being claimed that the Income Tax Department may take time to issue refunds this year.
The deadline will be crossed in just two days
First of all, if we look at the figures, a new record can be made for filing income tax returns for the financial year 2023-24 or assessment year 2024-25. Taxpayers are filing income tax returns at a rapid pace and the figure has reached close to five and a half crores. Although taxpayers are also getting troubled by glitches in the income tax return filing portal, but even after that, millions of ITRs are being filed every day.
Five and a half crore returned files
According to the dashboard of the income tax filing portal, 12.45 crore taxpayers have registered themselves so far in the current season. According to the data till the morning of July 29, more than 5 crore 43 lakh income tax returns have been filed so far. Taxpayers have verified more than 4 crore 91 lakh ITRs out of them, while about 2 crore 36 lakh ITRs have been processed by the Income Tax Department.
This time there is a possibility of delay in refund
Taxpayers are now waiting for the refund to be sent by the Income Tax Department. Usually, it takes 5 to 10 days for the refund amount to arrive after the return is processed. Meanwhile, ICWAI gold medalist chartered accountant Anand Luhar has claimed that taxpayers may have to wait longer to get the refund this year.
AI-ITR program is being implemented for the first time
According to Luhar, the Income Tax Department is using AI to process returns this time. The AI-based software developed will access the information related to the taxpayer’s PAN card and Aadhaar card and then match all the information with the information given in the return. After preparing the AI-ITR program, the department has successfully tested it and for the first time this year it is being implemented.
IT refund will take time this year. They are going to scrutinize the returns very strictly. For this, they are adapting the specially designed, self automated and modified artificial intelligence software program (AI) for scrutinizing the field of ITR. This program will first…
— Anand Luhar (@anand_luhar) July 28, 2024
What is Income Tax’s AI-ITR program?
Luhar says that with the help of this program, the department will investigate the details related to the taxpayer’s Aadhaar and PAN card, as well as all declared and undeclared bank accounts, FD-RD, investments in other savings schemes, purchase and sale of properties, purchase and sale of vehicles, foreign travel, credit card transactions, etc. After scrutinizing all this information, income tax returns, S26 data, etc. will be matched. He claims that all ITRs will be processed by the department in the last week of July or the first week of August.
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