Extend ITR Due Date Immediately Still Trending; Will Extension of ITR Filing to be Happen at Last Moment?

The Deadline for filing an Income Tax Return for the Financial Year 2021-22 (Assessment Year 2022–2023) for a Non-Audit case is July 31, 2022. While several Twitter users urged the income tax department to extend the deadlines as soon as possible, the government made it clear that it had no plans to do so.

Social media users have expressed their dissatisfaction with the e-filing website’s performance.

Tax experts and numerous other taxpayers have been pleading with the government to postpone the due date using the hashtag “#Extend Due Date Immediately” on Twitter for many days as the Income Tax Return (ITR) Filing Last Date for AY 2022-2023 approaches. This hashtag has been used in more than 25,000 tweets on social media site so far.

According to the most recent data on the Income Tax website, more than 4.09 crore ITRs have been submitted so far.

Union Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj had made it clear that the government does not have any plan to extend the deadline. “So far, there is no thinking of extending the last date of filing,” Mr. Bajaj wrote at his Twitter handle.

The announcement was made a few days after the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Ministry of Finance received a request for an extension from the All India Federation of Tax Practitioners (AIFTPs), an organisation of tax professionals, chartered accountants, and attorneys.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the supreme body of CAs, has declared that it will not request a deadline extension from the Finance Ministry in the middle of requests for one.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the challenges taxpayers were having using the new e-filing website, the government decided to extend the deadline for AY 2021–22 until December 31.

Chartered accountants and tax experts have noted on Twitter that fewer ITRs have been filed so far this year. If the ITR filing deadline is not extended, many taxpayers would have to pay a late filing penalty.

The Income Tax e-Filing Portal is not operating properly, according to users’ complaints. To convince the government to push back the deadline for reporting ITRs by at least one month, all users are tweeting incessantly to Extend Due Date Immediately.

Will Extension of Last Date of ITR Filing to be Happen at Last Moment?

The Government has not yet provided any information regarding the extension of the ITR filing deadline. This year, there shouldn’t be any additional deadlines for filing returns. Earlier, Union Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj had stated that no intention to extend the deadline was being considered by the government.

Even the Government has not responded to approx 25000 tweets made by tax experts and others taxpayers so far.

According to tax specialists, the new Income Tax system continues to experience minor technological lag issues, which are frequently caused by erratic traffic. Therefore, any ITR deadline extension will rely on how the new e-filing system manages the demand of increased web traffic in the days leading up to the due date.

What taxpayers should do?

As the Government is not planning for an extension of deadlines. To prevent any fines, penalties, and legal repercussions, taxpayers must electronically submit their ITR for the financial year 2021–2022 prior to the deadline.

Four types of negative consequences taxpayers will face if they fail to file their return by the due date:

• A penalty is the primary impact of filing late return. One needs to pay a penalty for filing a belated return.
• Second, if there is tax that needs to be paid, interest will be assessed at a rate of 1% per month until the taxes are paid and the ITR is filed.
• Third, losses cannot be carried over.
• Fourth, late ITR filing will result in late processing, which will further delay your return, if any.