ITR Filing: Missing income tax return dates can put you behind the bars

• People who have not filed an income tax return before the due date are still eligible to file belated return
• In case you forget to file your ITR at all, then the IT department is going to send you a notice to conduct legal proceedings
• The Income Tax authorities extended the deadline to issue Form 16 till 10 July

If you haven’t filed your income tax return yet, better hurry because you will have to pay a penalty and face restrictions in case you forget to fill ITR before the due date. The Income Tax authorities extended the deadline to issue Form 16 till 10 July, which in turn extended the deadline to file an income tax return (ITR) for FY18-19 to 31 July.

What is a belated return?

People who have not filed an income tax return before the due date are still eligible to file belated return any time during the current assessment year 2019-2020. Individuals can file belated return till 31 March 2019 or before the completion of assessment, whichever is earlier.

The Penalty

However filing belated returns comes with late fee and certain restrictions. The Income Tax department is going to levy a penalty of ₹5000 in case you file your return before 31 December of assessment year and ₹10,000 if the return is filed between January 1 and March 31.

Further, people below the income of ₹5 lakh per annum will not be charged more than ₹1,000. The penalty is required to be submitted before the belated return. The Income Tax will levy a penalty irrespective of whether there is any tax due or not.

Besides the penalty, you will also be required to pay interest on taxes for all the months till you file ITR.

And in case you forget to file your ITR at all, then the IT department is going to send you a notice to conduct legal proceedings. This can include jail term between three months to two years. The jail term can go as high as seven years if the tax is more than ₹25 lakh.