The last date for filing income tax returns (ITR) for the financial year 2018-19 is Saturday, August 31, 2019. If you want to avoid any last-minute hassle, apply at the earliest. Filling for the ITR after the deadline could attract a hefty penalty.
Penalty for filing ITR after the deadline was announced in the year 2017’s Budget. It came into being from the Assessment Year 2018-19. Earlier, it used to be sole discretion of the assessing officer to levy a penalty if the individual failed to file their tax return before the end of the relevant assessment year.
Section 234F introduced in the Income Tax Act made late filing mandatory.
The penalty for filing ITRs after the deadline is as follows:
Filed on or before December 31 and after August 31: Rs 5,000
Filed between January 1 and March 31: Rs 10,000
But this is not it, in case one is a ‘small taxpayers’, that is those whose total income does not exceed Rs 5 lakh, will be required to pay the maximum penalty for Rs 1,000.
In case an individual’s gross total income is not more than the basic exemption limit, then they are not liable to pay late filing fees. The basic exemption limit is as follows –
Age below 60 years: Rs 2,50,000
60 years or more but below 80 years: Rs 3,00,000
80 years and above: Rs 5,00,000
Earlier, in a major relief to the taxpayers, the government extended the deadline for filing income tax return (ITR) for the financial year 2018-19 by a month to August 31, 2019.
Budget 2019: PAN and Aadhaar card interchangeable for filling income tax returns
