Now less than a week is left for the deadline to file income tax returns for the current assessment year. Return filing will continue for 3 days next week and after that penalty will start being levied for filing ITR. The Income Tax Department has indicated before the deadline that there is little chance of it being extended.
Little chance of extending the deadline
The deadline for filing income tax returns for the financial year 2023-24 or assessment year 2024-25 is July 31. A group of taxpayers is demanding an extension of the deadline. They are citing the slowness of the income tax return filing portal. However, there is little hope of extending the deadline for filing income tax returns. The department feels that taxpayers are filing returns at the right speed and this year a new record of ITR filing is going to be made again.
More than 4 crore returns filed
According to the dashboard available on the income tax filing portal, more than 12.39 crore taxpayers have registered themselves on the portal so far. So far, about 4 crore 60 lakh income tax returns have been filed. Out of them, more than 4 crore 22 lakh returns have been verified by the taxpayers. The Income Tax Department has also processed more than 1 crore 89 lakh returns out of them.
This record was made last year
The Income Tax Department achieved the milestone of 4 crore ITR filings on 24 July this year itself. Last year, the figure of 4 crore ITRs was crossed on 26 July. On 23 July, more than 22 lakh ITRs were filed in a single day. Due to this, the department feels that a new record of ITR filing can be made this year. Last year, a record 6.77 crore income tax returns were filed till July 31.
5 thousand penalty after July 31
The Income Tax Department feels that there will be further acceleration in return filing by taxpayers in the remaining days before the deadline. In such a situation, there is no need to extend the deadline. Filing income tax returns is free till the deadline of filing income tax returns i.e. July 31, 2024. After the deadline is over, the taxpayer has time till December 31 to file a belated return, but for that the taxpayer has to pay a penalty of up to Rs 5 thousand.
