The central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has extended the ‘Due Date’ for filing of Income Tax Return from 31st July, 2019 to 31stAugust, 2019!
Interest and Penalty for failing to file ITR within due date
Those category of individuals with income below the exemption limit are not required to file the ITR irrespective of what they have earned income during the financial year. The basic exemption limit varies as per age.
What will happen if you fail to file ITR within due date of 2019-20? Last date of ITR filing for A.Y 2019-20 is 31st July, 2019. Unlike in past missing to file ITR has strict consequences. If one fails to file ITR by 31st July, 2019 then one still get the chance to file it by 31st March 2020, however with a late fees. Return filed after due date is called Belated return. So you get a chance to file belated return by 31st December, 2020 with late filing fees.
As per section 234F of income tax Act, if a person fails to file income tax return within due date and files it before 31st December late fees of 5000 is to be paid, if return is not filed even after 31st December late fees goes upto 10000 in that case.If there is tax payable then for late filing you would have to pay interest u/s 234A at 1% per month or part thereof on unpaid taxes along with interest u/s 234B and 234C as applicable.
When the provision of imprisonment will comes into effect?
276CC of income tax Act highlights that if intentionally you fail to file ITR that is you are doing the fault knowingly in that case a person could get imprisonment terms of at least 6 months. And this may extend upto 7 years if he is evading tax greater than 25 Lakhs. If tax he is trying to evade is greater than 3000 but is upto 25 Lakh then there could be imprisonment for a term of at least 3 months and it could go upto 2 years based on the amount of tax he was trying to avoid.
Therefore, one has to comply with the provision of ITR filing within the due date to avoid such mishappenings or reputation harm like interest, penalty fine or even jail.
Please note that for certain categories of tax payers due date of ITR filing is 30th September, 2019. You may consult caonweb experts for free to check your due date.
Jail for not filing your ITR will harm your business reputation. Are you filing your ITR before 31st july,2019
Chartered Accountant by profession, CA Sakshi Agarwal has an experience of above11 years in Cross Border compliance , Import Export , International Taxation & is a passionate content creator.