Will income tax return due date be extended today?

New Delhi, July 31: The due date of ITR filing for the financial year 2021-22 is today, failing which there will be a penalty on late filers from tomorrow. Some taxpayers and professionals are hoping for deadline extension. However, it is unlikely that the Government will extend due dates.

More than 5 crore income tax returns have been filed till late Saturday evening, a day before the ITR filing time for the financial year 2021-22 ends.

The department issued a public message through its official Twitter handle asking taxpayers, largely individuals and salaried class, to file their returns within the due date of July 31. "#FileNow to avoid late fee," it said.

The department said over 5 crore ITRs for the assessment year 2022-23 were filed up to 8.36 pm on Saturday.

The CBDT also issued an order stating that Aaykar Seva Kendras (ASKs) or Income Tax help centres across the country will remain open on Sunday and additional receipt counters will be opened, wherever required, to "facilitate filing of tax returns by the taxpayers."

Officials said the finance ministry and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), that frames policy for the tax department, are continuously monitoring the ITR filing exercise.

A "war room" of technical experts working on the portal and the social media team of the CBDT that is gathering individual and public responses to the filing are working together 24x7, a senior officer told PTI.

The officer said issues related to the e-filing portal are being addressed promptly and a response to each and every query raised by the taxpayers is being provided.

Asked about the demands being made over the social media and through representations sent to the CBDT to extend the ITR filing deadline of July 31, officials said they are looking at ensuring that "filings are done smoothly till the deadline and nothing more is on their mind right now."

The department's Twitter handle responded to some messages that said the e-filing website was not working by stating:

"As informed by our team, the e-filing portal is working fine. May we request you to retry after clearing the browser cache. If you still face any issues, pl share your details (with PAN & mobile no.) at mailto:HYPERLINK "mailto:[email protected]"[email protected]"HYPERLINK "mailto:[email protected]"[email protected]. Our team will connect with you."

According to data updated till July 28, around 4.05 crore ITRs were filed and among this the number of returns verified/validated by taxpayers stood at 3.09 crore.

The number of returns that were processable among these were 2.80 crore and out of this 2.41 crore or 86 per cent were processed, the data said.

The e-filing of ITRs by various categories of taxpayers is done at the web portal -- "http://incometax.gov.in".

About 5.89 crore ITRs were filed during the last time or the 2020-21 fiscal by the extended due date of December 31, 2021.