Income Tax Return Due Date Extension AY 2023-24: Why tax filers wait till Last Date? Experts react
Income Tax Return Due Date Extension AY 2023-24 News: More than 3 crore taxpayers have filed their returns till July 19. According to the Income Tax Department, the milestone of 3 crore ITRs has been reached seven days early this year, compared to the preceding year (AY 2022-23).
The data on the e-filing website shows that more than 2.9 crore returns have been verified by taxpayers while over 1.6 crore ITRs have been processed. Many tax filers have also received their refunds.
While the number of ITRs filed till July 19 is impressive, but around 3 crore returns are yet to be filed in the next 11 days before the Due Date, i.e. July 31. This raises a question as to why taxpayers wait till the last date or hope for an extension of the due date even while knowing that there is very little possibility of an extension.
There was no extension of the due date in the previous year. For AY 2023-24, Revenue Secretary also recently said the Finance Ministry was not contemplating any extension of the due date.
Also Read: Income Tax Return Revision for AY 2023-24: Who should file a revised ITR? Is there a penalty?
It is a general tendency, found amongst most of taxpayers, that they end up waiting till the last date for filing their returns in anticipation of the extension of due dates, according to Dr Suresh Surana, Founder, RSM India, a tax consultancy firm,
“It is recommended that returns should be furnished well in time as returns may fail to be furnished on the last day due to technical glitches on the website caused due to heavy internet traffic which result in interest and penalty consequences,” says Dr Surana.
“As the due date gets close, more and more returns are filed. Filing towards the last few days has been a trend,” says
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