Revised Return and Belated Income Tax Return Filing

Made mistake while filing your ITR?

It is usual that sometimes we make mistakes while filing our Income tax return online, this might be a case of sufficing incorrect figures, taking unjust deductions, ignored interest incomes and other income sources etc. It is necessary that we take utmost care to avoid such probable mistakes.

But there is nothing to lose heart because the tax department provides another opportunity to every taxpayer to re-submit their Income tax return either before completion of the relevant assessment year or before the completion of assessment whichever is earlier i.e. for F.Y. 2017-18 last date to revise your Income Tax Return is 31^st March 2019.

As per Section 139(5), the Income-tax department allows taxpayers to rectify their mistakes in the return submitted to the department and submit a Revised Return for the same.

What is a Revised Income Tax Return?

A Revised return allows you to resubmit your faulted Income tax return after you rectify and make corrections to the error or omission of facts that you discovered after filing your original ITR. Filing of a revised return simply means that you are filing and submitting the correct information to the tax department against previous facts out of those you disclosed in the original return.

What you need to take care before filing your Revised Return under Section 139(5):

• Every asessee who has filed his income tax return can revise it under Section 139 (5) to resubmit the right information to the tax department.
• Before the assessment period 2017-18 (F.Y. 2016-17), only those taxpayers who have filed returns before the deadline were allowed, but now every taxpayer who even filed after the due date can file a revised return.
• The taxpayer has to furnish the acknowledgment number and related details of the original return as filed under Section 139(1) while filing a revised return under Section 139(5).
• One can file a revised return only till the closing date i.e. 31^st March of the relevant assessment year for which the return has been filed. Earlier till financial year 2016-17 (A.Y. 2017-18), this limit was stated for 2 years from the filing of the financial year, but later it was reduced to only one year (As applicable from AY 2018-19 or FY 2017-18).

For example: If you have submitted your ITR for the financial year 2017-18, the due date for filing your revised return would be 31st March 2019.

• There is no particular limit for submission of a revised return; you can submit your revised changes any number of times. But it is always advisable to take help of income tax service provider before final submission of your original Income tax return to avoid further re-submissions.
• One can file a revised return by selecting option 17, which is stated as – Option 17- Revised under Section 139 (5) under the ‘return filed’ column. The specified ITR form will further ask for the previous return details and the changes required.
• Like the original return, the revised return also needs to be verified by the taxpayer either through a DSC or EVC or by manual sending to the tax department at CPC.

(Note: If the scrutiny assessment of your ITR has been completed under Section 143(3) and Section 144, you cannot submit a revised return for the same, provided that it can be resubmitted if processed under Section 143(1))

Is it possible to revise a belated Income Tax return?

A belated income tax return is a return which is filed by the taxpayer after the due date of the return filing period and before the expiry of the assessment period or assessment whichever is earlier.

Belated return is one which is:

1. Filed after the specified due dates as mentioned under Section 139(1) .

2. Filed on receipt of notice from the Income tax officer under section 142 (1) directing the taxpayer to file his return before a specified date.

For example, The due date for filing ITR for FY 2017-18 as stated by the department was 31st July /31 September 2018, the belated return for the same can be filed by 31st March 2019. (i.e. the end of the assessment year)

As per the amendments made through the Finance Act,2016 as applicable from Assessment year 17-18, a belated return filed under Section 139(4) can be revised.

Filing Belated Return – Problems & Penalties

Filing of an online income return requires assistance and expertise of a professional tax service provider, it assures you accuracy in tax computations and minimizes your tax penalties. Taxgoal is an online income tax service provider in Delhi, which takes care of all your tax, needs and holds multicity in business financial services.

Non-filing of timely returns and belated return filing keeps you away from the probable tax benefits and lease out following problems and penalties for you:

• A fixed penalty of Rs 5000 for filing a revised return after due date till 31st December, if filed between Jan to March, the penalty would rise to Rs 10,000 (as applicable from April 1,2018).
• If tax payable, interest penalties would also be levied under Section 234.
• If income is below Rs 5 lakh, still a penalty of Rs 1,000 is to be paid.
• No interest on refunds are provided
• The taxpayer has to face delayed receipt of refunds.

The due date for filling the revised return for the FY 2017-18 (AY 2018-19) is ‘ 31^st March, 2019 ‘. Get yourself saved from the veiling penalties of the department and file it before 31^stMarch 2019 with Taxgoal.in, you can contact our tax expert by mailing us at support@taxgoal.in or call at +919899693838.