ITR filing last date: Over 50% taxpayers yet to file Income Tax Returns, finds survey

Filing Income Tax Return (ITR) is a mandatory requirement for all taxpayers. This allows the government to assess whether the tax paid by individuals on income is accurate.

The ITR filing's last date is now approaching. If you haven't filed ITR, then do it now because the government has dropped hints that it may not extend the deadline which is July 31 for the salaried people and non-auditable accounts.

According to a LocalCircle survey, more than 50 per cent of people have not yet filed their ITR. The survey said that 37 per cent of the respondents are uncertain if they will be able to meet the deadline for ITR filing.

Just 46 per cent of the taxpayers have filed their returns, the LocalCircles survey said. According to LocalCircles, it received more than 11,000 responses from citizens across 306 districts.

Last week, a Tweet shared by the Income Tax department said that more than 2 crores ITRs have been filed via e-filing system. The figure is less than half of the total ITRs filed in the previous year.

Going by the I-T department data release in March, over 6.63 crore ITRs were filed for 2020-21 fiscal, an increase of 16.7 lakh over the tax returns filed last year.

Taxpayers are suggested to file their ITRs in advance because mistakes and issues with e-filing websites happen frequently at the last minute.

In case a taxpayer misses the July 31 deadline, he/she can still file ITR until December 31 of the assessment year. However, this is known as a belated return. Those filing return after July 31 will have to pay interest and penalties.

If the total amount of income that must be reported doesn't exceed Rs 5 lakh, the late fees is Rs 1,000. In case total amount of income that must be reported exceeds Rs. 5 lakh, a late fee of Rs 5,000 is charged.