Income Tax Returns (ITR) filing: The last day for filing income tax returns is today. Earlier the deadline was July 31, but the government extended the date by one-month to August 31. It is unlikely that the deadline will get an extension again. The government has already announced penalties for late filers.  
 
In Kerala, due to the flood menace, the last date of filing has been extended to September 15.  

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If your income is below Rs 5 lakh per annum, you will have to pay Rs 1,000 fine. If your income is above Rs 5 lakh and you file ITR between September 1 and December 31, you will be charged Rs 5,000 fine. If you file the returns after December 31, you will have to pay a fine of Rs 10,000.

However, if you have a tax liability and you miss today's deadline, you will have to pay taxes in addition to interest on the amount and the penalty amount.

You can file the ITR online, but make sure that you have all the documents ready and double check for any error before submitting them. Also, don't forget to e-verify it.

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Over five crore Income Tax Returns have been filed this year so far. This indicates a massive jump of over 60 per cent as compared to the last year's filings. Over 20 lakh ITR have been filed on August 30. The number is bound to surge further considering the last minute rush to file the taxes.

Taranpreet Singh, TASS Advisors Partner, says if you are filing returns online, keep in mind these points to avoid possible errors:

* In the new ITR-1 form, you are required to fill detailed calculation of income from salary and house property, unlike a single figure till the last year.  In case of taxpayers who opt to declare income on a presumptive basis, will now have to file the income tax return in ITR-4 along with the additional information such as- total creditors, total debtors, inventory, cash balance.

* In the new ITR form, the assessee is required to report the GST no. and aggregate turnover as reported in the GST return. Therefore it is important that the sales declared in GST reconciles with your gross turnover as reported in the income tax filings. In addition, the new forms have introduced new columns to report each capital gain exemptions separately.