Everything You Need To Know About Penalties For Late Filing Of Income Tax Returns

Every taxpayer needs to file tax returns with the income tax department every year. The document needed for this is known as an Income tax return in which all the income earned during the previous financial year is declared. It can be fined monthly or quarterly based on whether the taxes had been paid earlier. What if you fail to file the ITR on time? Read on to know more.

Deadlines for various ITR filing categories:

There are different deadlines for various persons and identities for filing ITR. Here are the details of the different categories:

1. For the people or entities for whom tax audit is not applicable, need to file their ITR by July 2022.
2. People or entities who come under tax audit except for the cases where transfer pricing is involved, have to file ITR by October 31, 2022. 
3. Those individuals who come under transfer pricing, have the ITR filing deadline as November 31, 2022.
4. December 31, 2022, is the last date for filing a revised ITR or late filing of an ITR.

Repercussions of missing the ITR deadline

Failing to file the ITR by the given deadline, can lead to penalties along with interest charges. There are also chances of suspension or termination from the job. Here are the common consequences: 

i. Penalty:

Those with an annual income of over Rs. 5 lakh have to pay a penalty of Rs. 5000 but if ITR is filed between December and March 2023, the penalty increases to Rs. 10,000. 

Those within the income slab below Rs. 5 lakh, who fail to file their ITR before March 31, have to pay a late fee of Rs. 1000, as per Section 234F. This remains unchanged even if the filing is done before December 31, 2022. 

Those with a total income of more than Rs.5 lakh per annum will have a late fee of Rs. 5000 on filing the ITR between August 1 to December 31, 2022.

Senior citizens between 60-80 years having an annual income of more than Rs.3 lakhs, and those above 80 years with annual income exceeding Rs. 5 lakhs, will be penalized for not filing ITR as per section 234F.

ii. Interest payment:

An interest of 1% is chargeable every month on the unpaid tax amount when ITR is not filed by the due date. This is according to Section 234A. This interest starts accruing after the tax filing due date, i.e July 31 of the financial year. The longer the delay, the higher will be the interest accumulated.

If a person has taxable income but failed to file ITR or in case less amount of income is mentioned, he has to pay 50% of the total tax on the income for which the return wasn’t filed. 

iii. Penalty under Section 271H

There will be a penalty of Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 1,00,000 along with the penalty for filing a late ITR under Section 234 E. This is for those who fail to file TCS or TDS before the deadline. Rs. 200 is the penalty for each day as per Section 234E, till the payment of TDS or TCS. 

iv. Prosecution for tax evasion:

If an individual fails to pay tax even after the deadline then under Section 276CC of the Income Tax Act for tax evasion, he could be imprisoned. First IT department will issue him a notice under Section 142(1), 148, or 153A, and then the prosecution will be the last step.

When the amount of tax is more than Rs. 25 lakhs, the imprisonment will be for at least 6 months and can extend for up to 7 years. 

Apart from this, other cases will have a penalty as well as a minimum of 3 months imprisonment, which is extensible up to 2 years.

Penalty on people with incomes below the taxable limit on filing ITR late:

When the gross income of an individual or organization is below the taxable limit, no penalties are filed for non-filing of ITR. But here are some exceptions to this:

• Those having over Rs. 1 lakh electricity consumption expenses.
• Indian residents have income from foreign assets.
• When total deposits are over Rs. 1 crore in one or multiple current accounts in a bank. 
• Expenses of foreign travel exceed Rs. 2 lakhs. 

Process of filing late ITR online:

If you missed the deadline for filing ITR, you can file it till March 21, 2023, online, by following the steps mentioned below:

1. Login to the e-filing website and go to the ‘services’ tab.
2. Click on ‘condonation request’, choose the option ‘Allow ITR filing after time barred’ and click continue. 
3. Choose ‘create condonation request’ on the next page and fill in all the required details.
4. Upload the ITR and click the ‘submit’ button.
5. Select the ‘e-verify’ option so that after the condonation request approval, ITR can be processed. The status of the condonation request can also be tracked online. 

Another way is to know your assessing offer and send a condonation delay request letter in person before ITT filing online.

Conclusion

The process is done online and through ITR Form 16 which is regularly updated and comes with new features. This is to ensure smoother and more efficient completion of the process in less time. Tax payment cant is completely avoided by reducing to some extent by investing in term insurance plans, Unit Linked Insurance Plans (ULIPs), Guaranteed Savings Plans or Health Insurance. Tax planning is crucial for every individual and filing ITR on time is the only way to avoid heavy penalties. 

Check out the Piramal Finance website and explore their services to save tax.