Since the latest deadline for submitting income tax returns (ITR) for the fiscal year 2021–2022 and assessment year 2022–2023. As of July 31—the deadline for the aforementioned assessment year—about 5.83 crore ITRs had been submitted. Even if your ITR was submitted on time, there is a potential that you could still be subject to a Rs 5,000 fine. Your returns will be rejected and subject to a late filing penalty if you failed to verify your ITR despite filing it within the allotted time frame.
The Income Tax Department has always advised the taxpayers to verify their ITRs after they have been filed as the last step before the submission of the returns is complete.
On its website, the Income Tax Department says, "You need to verify your Income Tax Returns to complete the return filing process. Without verification within the stipulated time, an ITR is treated as invalid. e-Verification is the most convenient and instant way to verify your ITR."
The IT department further has guided that, "if you do not verify in time, your return is treated as not filed and it will attract all the consequences of not filing ITR under the Income Tax Act, 1961."
However, the government states that if you provide a good enough reason, you can ask for a delay in verification to be pardoned. You won't be able to e-Verify your return unless you've submitted a request of that nature. However, the return won't be regarded as legitimate until the appropriate income tax authority has granted the condonation request.
Simply put, you will be subject to penalties if you wait until after July 31 to verify your ITRs.
The department suggests filing "a condonation request as soon as you notice that you have not verified your return."
The CBDT has reduced the time limit for electronically verifying ITRs to 30 days from their previous 120 days, from August 1.
Additionally, the date on which a taxpayer e-verifies their ITR will be taken into account for determining the filing deadline. However, taxpayers who file the ITR-V form must use this e-verification.
On July 29, in a statement, CBDT said, "It has been decided that in respect of any electronic transmission of return data on or after the date this Notification comes into effect, the time-limit for e-verification or submission of ITR-V shall now be 30 days from the date of transmitting/uploading the data of return of income electronically." This has come into effect from August 1.
A late filing fee will be applicable to taxpayers under section 234F of the IT Act, after the fall of due date, July 31. If the returns are submitted on or before December 31 of the assessment year, a 5,000 penalty is assessed under this clause. While in all other circumstances, the fine will be 10,000. The fee payable under this clause, however, may not exceed $1,000 if the person's total annual income is less than Rs. 5 lakh.
Currently there are 7 ITR forms available to be filed depending on the category of taxpayers and their source of income.
Ways to e-verify your ITRs:
- OTP on the mobile number registered with Aadhaar, or
- EVC generated through your pre-validated bank account, or
- EVC generated through your pre-validated Demat account, or
- EVC through ATM (offline method), or
- Net Banking, or
- Digital Signature Certificate (DSC).
You will receive a success message along with your transaction ID if your e-verification was successful. Additionally, a message will be sent to the email address you entered with the e-filing system.
On August 1, the Finance Ministry said that the surge of filing ITRs peaked on 31st July 2022 (due date for salaried taxpayers and other non-tax audit cases) with over 72.42 lakh ITRs being filed on a single day i.e on 31st July 2022. The total ITRs filed till 31st July 2022 for AY 22-23 is about 5.83 crore.
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