If you missed filing income tax returns (ITR) by July 31, 2022, here's your last chance. You can file your belated ITR by December 31 by paying a fee.
“Tax returns should be filed before December 31 to avoid receiving the tax department’s notice. Anyone who has an income of more than ₹2.5 lakh is supposed to pay income tax. The tax department holds all the data based on the returns that were filed in the previous years,” says chartered accountant Chirag Chauhan.
It is important to realise that this deadline of December 31 applies across all taxpayers: individual, corporate, audit, and non-audit.
Paying a fee
Under section 234F of the income tax act (I-T Act), tax payers will be made to pay fee under section 234F of the Income Tax Act. This provision of section 234F came into effect on April 1, 2018 and is applicable when the tax payers failed to furnish income tax return within the time prescribed.
| Income threshold | Fee to be paid (Rs) |
| Lower than ₹5 lakh | ₹1,000 |
| Over ₹5 lakh | ₹5,000 |
“Earlier the last date used to be March 31 for filing a belated tax return, but the department has advanced it to December 31. If one misses this deadline, then one can’t file the return for fiscal 2021-22 barring when the Income Tax Department sends a notice to tax payer to file the return. It is also vital to remember that one can’t claim tax refund once this deadline passes,” says Deepak Aggarwal, a Delhi-based chartered accountant and financial advisor.
Filing updated return
It is important to remember that if one wants to update previous returns, one can do after December 31.
ALSO READ: Taxpayers can file updated returns for past two years in line with the latest rules
The time period for filing updated return is a maximum of two years from the end of the relevant assessment year, as announced by the Union finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during the 2022-23 Budget speech.
"Presently, if the department finds out that some income has been missed out by the assessee — it goes through a lengthy process of adjudication. Instead, with this proposal now, there will be a trust reposed in the taxpayers …. This updated return can be filed within two years from the end of the relevant assessment year," Ms Sitharaman said during the Budget speech 2022-23.
