Penalty for missing ITR filing deadline and who won’t have to pay

Penalty for missing ITR filing deadline and who won’t have to pay

Income Tax return filing has been extended to January 10, 2021, there is no penalty this year because you are only charged if you file your ITR after your due date

Income Tax Return Fillling

On a press release dated December 30, 2020, there has been an extension of the deadline for filing income tax returns. This is exclusively for the accounts of taxpayers that are not required to be audited to January 10, 2021. Last year, one who had missed the ITR filing deadline had to pay Rs. 5000. This was for filing of belated ITR within a few months. This year, however, there has been a huge difference. A belated ITR file has to pay a penalty of Rs. 10,000.

Note that, the penalty fee for late filing of income tax returns is only applicable if one’s net total income (total as in income after claiming eligible deductions and tax exemptions) is over Rs. 5 lakhs in the particular financial year in which the ITR is filed. And if one’s net total income is less than Rs. 5 lakhs in the particular financial year, then the late filing fee will be Rs. 1,000.

Unit Linked Insurance Plans (ULIPs) for fulfillment of long-term goals

The deadline to file ITR for a person is July 31st every year. In case, one misses the deadline and files the belated return by December 31st, then the late fee is Rs. 5000. And the same belated file, if filed next year on or before March, the penalty is Rs. 10000.

Naveen Wadhwa, a Chartered Accountant, says, “Since the due date of ITR filing has been extended to January 10, 2021, there is no penalty this year because you are only charged if you file your ITR after your due date.”