5 days to ITR deadline: Know late filing fee, ITR form applicable to you

The deadline for filing Income Tax Return (ITR) for the Financial Year 2021-22 or Assessment Year 2022-23 for those taxpayers who do not need to get their returns audited is July 31, 2022. The Income Tax (I-T) Department has been reminding taxpayers through emails and SMSs about the ITR deadline. The Finance Ministry has clarified that there would be no extension of the last day of filing of ITR this year.

The I-T department in a recent tweet said as of July 25, over 3 crore ITRs have been filed in AY2022-23 on the e-filing portal.

“More than 3 crore ITRs for AY 2022-23 have been filed on e-Filing portal till 25th July, 2022. The due date to file ITR for AY 2022-23 is 31st July, 2022. We urge you to file your ITR at the earliest, if not filed as yet. #FileNow!” the tweet read.

Taxpayers need to ensure that they they file their ITRs by the Sunday deadline as the government has already clarified that there would be no extension of the deadline. Filing ITR after the deadline counts as filing belated ITR. The taxpayer would be levied a late fine for filing a belated ITR. As per section 234F of the Income Tax Act, 1961, this fine is Rs 5,000. For small taxpayers who have a total income not exceeding Rs 5 lakh the late fee will not exceed Rs 1,000. The late fee needs to be deposited along before the belated ITR is filed.

Selecting the right ITR form is important for filing ITR or else the return will be treated as defective and the tax department will send you a notice. There are different ITR forms for different types of in-come sources. For those with salary, single house property, dividend, agriculture income up to Rs 5,000 and other sources of income shall use ITR-1 to file returns.

In case the income exceeds Rs 50 lakh or the taxpayer has income from capital gains or holding unlisted equity shares, then the taxpayer will be required to file ITR-2.

Those who have income from business or profession, will need ITR-3 and ITR-4 as applicable.