ITR filing July 31 deadline: Penalties and other outcomes if you miss the due date to file income tax return

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₹5,000 under Section 234F. However, for individuals with an income of less than ₹5 lakh, the penalty will be a reduced amount of ₹1,000," said Abhishek Soni Tax and investment expert Balwant Jain said, "If an earning individual misses filing ITR within the given due date, then he or she would be able to do so by paying the late fee.

The late fee would be ₹5,000 if the annual taxable income is ₹5 lakh or more whereas the late fee would be ₹1,000 if the taxable income is below ₹5 lakh."  Mumbai-based tax expert Balwant Jain added that the Indian government has the power to initiate prosecution against the salaried individuals who have missed filing ITR by 31st December 2023  "Current income tax rules prescribe a minimum sentence of 6 months of imprisonment and a maximum sentence of 7 years of imprisonment. It is not that the department can launch prosecution against you in each and every instance of failure to file the ITR.

The income department can launch prosecution only in case the amount of tax sought to be avoided exceeds ₹10,000," Balwant Jain said. More than four crore income tax returns (ITRs) for the 2022-23 financial year have been filed so far and about 7 per cent of these are new or first-time filers, CBDT chairperson Nitin Gupta said on Monday.

He said that more than half of these ITRs have been processed leading to 80 lakh refunds till now. The chairperson was speaking at an event held here to mark the 164th Income Tax Day on 24 July