Pay Upto Rs 5000 Penalty If Income Tax Not Filed By March 31; Double TDS, And No Interest On Refund!

As we all know, the last date for filing your income tax return (ITR) for the financial year 2020-21 (AY 2021-22) was March 31.

Earlier, the original deadline of filing the income tax was July 31, 2021, which was extended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

But, now the people who have missed the last date for filing ITR will incur a penalty. 

This will also lead to a loss of refund, and attract an interest payment from the income tax department.

What Will Happen If You Haven’t Filed ITR By March 31?

If you couldn’t file the ITR by 31 march then the I-T department can levy up to 50 percent penalty under Section 270 of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

Besides this, the taxpayers will also have to pay interest on the due amount for the number of days till the date of filing ITR.

To be specific, a fine of Rs 5,000 needs to be paid under Section 234F if you submit the ITR after the deadline. 

Please note here that these rules are  applicable to the individuals with an annual income of more than Rs 5 lakh. 

At the same time people with an income less than Rs 5 lakh will have to pay a fine of Rs 1,000.

If Individuals Don’t File Their ITR? 

Consider the case, where, if individuals don’t file their ITR then the taxpayer will not be entitled to receive any interest on the refund of excess taxes paid for the delay period.

Apart from this the Individuals may also have to face higher TDS (tax deducted at source). 

Basically, the non-filers will face TDS at twice the normal rate or 5 percent, as per a proposal in last year’s budget. 

Here, a ‘non-filer’ is an individual who has not filed an ITR in the past two years immediately before the one in which tax is to be deducted.