E-filing is the most convenient and hassle-free way for filing your income tax returns. By using the online filing method, one can easily file income tax returns from home itself. Along with this, the ITR 1 of the ITR filing form is currently pre-filled. Always cross-check all the pre-filled forms before filing your Income Tax Returns.
India has been on and off the lockdown since February because of the widespread Coronavirus. The Finance Minister of India Smt. Nirmala Sitaraman has extended the last date of filing the ITR for the year 2018-19 to June 30, 2020. Although the lockdown was lifted from various states, the government has further declared another extended deadline for filing the ITR for the fiscal year 2018-19 to July 31st, 2020. The ITR filed after the due date is termed as ‘belated ITR’ and it comes under the Finance Act 2017.
If you still haven’t filed your income tax return for the mentioned fiscal year yet, you can file it online before the mentioned deadline. The online filing of ITR is a convenient way for filing the returns from the taxpayer’s home itself. Here we are mentioning 2 ways to file your tax returns online.
Method 1
- Go to the IT department tax filing portal. – incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in
- Register or login to your account
- If you are a new user, you can register using PAN
- Once you logged in to your account, select Filing or Income tax return tab
- On the next page select the assessment year from the drop down
- Choose ITR form number and also the filing type
- Select ‘Prepare and submit online’
- Choose the pre-validated bank account where you want to get the IT refund.
- IT refunds will be processed only to the eligible candidates.
Method 2
- Visit the IT department tax filing portal
- Download the right ITR form in excel format
- Fill up your details and information offline
- Check all the tax details
- Confirm by cross checking your documents
- Upload the excel file to generate an XML file
- Go back to the e-filing website
- Upload the xml file
- Click on ‘Submit return’
- Generate the acknowledge from from the next screen
- The form can be downloaded or emailed to the registered email id
- The returns can be e-verified through different modes such as Demat account number, Aadhaar OTP, OTP to the registered mobile number, bank account number, and email.
Note: There is no need to send the physical application to the IT department after the e verification.
Late ITR filing penalty
According to the latest notification from the Income Tax department, the penalty for delaying the tax payment will be a maximum of Rs. 10,000. Rs. 5000 will be levied if the return was delayed pre December 31 and Rs 10,000 post-December 31. If the income is not more than 5 lakh, the penalty would be utmost Rs. 1000.
The ministry has extended the deadline because of the pandemic situation. Therefore always check the deadline and make sure you file the ITR before the mentioned date. The administration, on May 13 declared the extension of income tax return (ITR) filing last date for FY 2019-20 to November 30, 2020, from July 31, 2020. The annexe was released via an enactment dated March 31, 2020. Government has extended the deadline for many other tax-related activities to June 30. Refer to the official notification for further information.
Earlier, the taxpayers were allowed to revise the return within two years from the fiscal year which the return was filed. But the time period for revising is shortened to 1 year from the current fiscal year. That too at the end of the financial year. In this case, for the fiscal year ending in March 2019, the taxpayer will have time till March 2019 to revise his/her ITR.
All the taxpayers are liable to simple interest at 1% per month for delaying the filing of Income Tax Returns. If the taxpayer doesn’t file the ITR together, the Income Tax Department will send a notice regarding the same to the address registered with the tax department. Not filing the ITR may cause other penalties and even prosecution.